Sacrifices
by Kei Tree
Summary: Epilogue up! Complete Her first child for her release... That was Sarah's promise, but when payment is due she offers Jareth, the Goblin King, another deal Her child for herself.
1. Prologue: The Deal

Author's Notes: Hi, this is my first Labyrinth fic, just to let you   
know. God, I love this movie. =) Please Read/Review and let me know   
whatcha think. This scene takes place at the end of the movie,   
right as Sarah is reciting the last of the book.  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Prologue~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
Sarah looked at him, at Jareth, the Goblin King. Her   
expressive gaze narrowed, then widened with realization. The words   
that shattered Jareth's world were breathed through full, parted lips.  
  
"You have no power over me." Such childlike innocence, such   
belief. His own tortured gaze widened as he howled.  
  
"No!" His globe of dreams shattered in his hands, cutting is   
palms deeply as shards cleaved through his leather gloves. She sensed   
in him the need to fall, to crumple to the ground. He seemed so, so   
defeated, so diminished. But the only acknowledgment of defeat came   
in the form of his bowed head and even then he was terrifying in his   
absolute control.   
  
"Release me," Sarah asked, demanded, as a moment of incredibly   
painful silence stretched between them. Jareth's head rose a fraction   
and she swallowed in response to the depth in his strangely colored   
eyes. He smiled crookedly, smirked, and Sarah trembled.   
  
"I would little Sarah but you're no longer mine to release."   
He straightened in one swift movement and all illusion of failure was   
gone. He was once again every inch the regal Goblin King.   
  
"I... I don't understand." Jareth laughed and the sound was   
chilling. All warmth, all promise was gone from his utterly impassive   
face. Only faint traces of amusement clung to its visages.   
  
"No, you wouldn't would you Sarah? Let me explain things to   
you slowly. You accepted one of my gifts, but though I was the giver   
you received the fruits of another." His smile twisted at his own   
deliberate pun.   
  
"That peach you ate, it is the Labyrinth's itself. By   
accepting it, by eating it, you bound part of yourself here, to it."   
Sarah took one faltering step backward as realization hit her but she   
wasn't cowed for long, she rarely was. She responded bravely enough,   
even if her voice shook.  
  
"But I defeated you, and you are its King. Send me back, now   
Jareth." He raised eyebrows even higher at her demand.  
  
"Sarah, Sarah... You did defeat me but those are the rules,   
its rules. I am its master and King but I cannot change its nature.   
Part of you is owed to this world." She took another step back at the   
sudden menace in his voice. Jareth had not accepted his loss   
lightly; his pride would never allow that.   
  
"And since you are quite whole extracting the due of a part   
might prove uncomfortable..." Sarah swallowed quickly.   
  
"Send me back," she whispered. "I beat your Jareth, I won."   
He narrowed those dangerous eyes of his before whirling, turning his   
back to her. She stared at his profile, etched out dark against the   
stars and took a deep, calming breath.   
  
"Part of you is due but since you are so determined to return   
to your mundane world of reality then I offer you a deal. Return now   
and when the time comes, I will exact payment. Your first child shall   
be mine."   
  
Sarah's face paled at this as her heart cried out against the   
very thought of her child being Jareth's. She started to voice her   
violent denial, to refuse, but Jareth turned and looked her directly   
in the eye. She had never felt to insignificant, so utterly alone, so   
vulnerable, so afraid. Never. There was a hell reflected through the   
Goblin King's eyes that was barely restrained.   
  
"What shall it be Sarah? Do I own your present or your   
future?" She fought back bitter tears. God, she was so tired. How   
could thirteen hours seem so long? Her fingers curled into fists at   
her sides and she bit one full lip before flinging her answer out from   
the very depths of her soul.  
  
"Fine," she cried, "my soul for the present. I promise you my   
first child." She saw Jareth's smile of triumph, wondered wildly what   
trap he had laid for her, and had time to scream as she was wrenched   
back to the world from which she had been taken. 


	2. Chapter One: A Mother's Love

AN: Ahem, I forgot the disclaimer in the previous chapter. So umm,   
*inserts hastily imagined trumpet fanfare with fireworks*  
  
Standard discalimers apply.  
  
*the fireworks smoke as the trumpets sputter to an embarassed silence*  
  
Yeah... I'm in an odd mood. =) Please, please review! I'm working on a   
ton of stories and the one with the most reviews will probably be the   
one most worked on. What can I say, I'm a glutton for encouragement.   
*winks* Toodles ya'll. Enjoy chapter two. Thought I would post it   
and fill up the looming plot holes that mark a badly written story.   
'Yes, I know very well Sarah could have just not have a kid...'   
well... read on for explanations and of course, more Jareth!  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices Chapter One~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
  
20 years later...  
  
Sarah cooed as she rocked Melanie. The toddler giggled   
tiredly and clutched Sarah's robe with one chubby hand as the other   
stubbornly curled towards a mouth already full with a pacifier, thumb   
outstretched. The defeated hand relaxed and absently caught a tendril   
of Sarah's long hair, unconsciously twirling its silken tresses. She   
smiled and planted a kiss on Melanie's soft brow. The little girl's   
forehead wrinkled as sleep took her.   
  
Sarah flicked off the light in the nursery, which was then   
illuminated by the gentle glow of the blue night-light. She walked   
the few steps to the almost too small crib and started to gently place   
the child atop the blankets. Melanie, still half-asleep, protested   
with a mumble and a tighter grip before waking up enough to murmur,   
quite clearly, "Mama."   
  
Sarah's breath fled as she clutched the sleeping child to her   
breast, heart thumping madly with joy. 'Oh God, wait till I tell   
Devon.' It was her fondest hope, her most treasured desire, to be   
loved by his child. Melanie was two and already half orphaned. Her   
mother, Devon's wife, had died due to complications in childbirth.   
But now Devon, two years later, was her fiancé and his child, the baby   
that Sarah had practically raised, had called her 'Mama'. Melanie   
loved Sarah but never, in all the time that she had talked, had,   
perhaps by unconscious knowledge, called her soon to be stepmother,   
'Mama'. To be trusted with such a title, it was more than Sarah had   
dared to dream.   
  
A clatter and sudden lightning strike that lit the room with   
silver glory startled her. Sarah held the little girl tighter as   
premonition, dread, filled her. She had left the drapes closed, she   
always did at night, but the scratchings, the thunder that was   
suddenly growing outside, was too familiar for comfort. She backed   
away, closer and closer to the nursery door when suddenly it slammed   
shut, as if by magic. Horror ate at her as terror bid her to flee.   
She took another half stumbling step backward until her back pressed   
against the cool wood of the locked nursery door, a door that could   
only be locked from the inside, not the out, even as Melanie slept on   
soundly. The noise, the dancing lights, the confusion of chaos   
increased until suddenly...  
  
The doors to the balcony blew in as glass shattered,   
disappeared, and Jareth, King of the Goblins, entered her home.  
  
He had changed little in twenty years. In fact he hadn't   
changed at all. The imperialness, the kingliness, the way his   
presence filled the room, all was unchanged. He hadn't aged a day and   
he looked, he looked as wonderful, as beautiful, as alluring, every   
damn bit as dangerous as Sarah remembered, especially attired as he   
was in a motley array of silks and leathers dyed various shades of   
gray and black, all streaked with silver. He strolled across the   
distance that separated them and bowed mockingly to her, hungry,   
fearsome eyes glue to her face, putting her under a fierce, studying   
regard that made her feel and regret every line, every wrinkle, every   
scar, every ounce that she had added to her waif like body.   
  
"Hello Sarah." Her mouth worked a moment without producing a   
sound as she fought through old fear, too familiar panic. He made her   
feel so inadequate! But even when she spoke her words weren't quite   
as brave as she had hoped for.  
  
"If you've come for your payment you've come by mistake." She   
spoke but Jareth ignored her as he glided closer. One black gloved   
hand reached out and touched Melanie's sleeping cheek, even as she   
tried to shield the girl.  
  
"Is this the baby?" Jareth asked, curious, pleased. Sarah   
bristled and darted sideways, past the Goblin King.   
  
"You can't have her Jareth." He straightened and watched her   
with deepening amusement. She never let her eyes leave him, both for   
fear and for, for some unnamed, unacknowledged thing that yearned for   
what she most despised.   
  
"Can't Sarah?" he mocked even as his soft tread followed her   
around the room languidly. "Can't? I assure you dear girl, I most   
assuredly can, and I shall. She'll by my daughter I believe. I tire   
of the goblin's incessant chatter and adoration. Come Sarah, don't be   
a foolish girl. Give her here." Sarah spat, her anger overcoming her   
fear.  
  
"She's not yours Jareth because she isn't mine, and I haven't   
been a girl for years!" He ignored her last outburst as he addressed   
the first with a smile that made her knees quake.  
  
"Not yours? I heard her quite clearly name you as her Mother   
dear Sarah." She laughed wildly and edged still further away.   
  
"Perhaps so Jareth but she isn't mine. Firstborn... and I have   
borne no children. You cannot claim payment yet." He was at her side   
in a flash and she stood fearfully still as he held her chin in gloved   
hands.  
  
"Cannot? Dare not assume to tell me the limits of my   
abilities Sarah. You might anger me." There was a flash in the   
unreadable depths of his too deep eyes, a spark of some old hurt, some   
bitterly clung to memory. Sarah shut her own eyes against the weight   
in his and the pressure on her chin eased as he released her and   
touched Melanie's hair.   
  
"You suffer in indignation under a false presumption Sarah. I   
never bargained for your firstborn, I bargained for your first child.   
This girl may not be borne from your body but she is the child of your   
heart," at this he startled her by touched the skin above her beating   
heart, "and soul. She named you Mother and you, by fighting so   
fiercely for her, name her daughter. She is most definitely yours,   
and thus, by forfeit, mine."   
  
She cried out and turned, holding Melanie tighter. The baby   
murmured softly but slumbered on. Jareth touched her shoulder.  
  
"Come Sarah, I do not have the time or patience for this show   
of motherly instinct. Give me the child." She whirled to face him   
and he was momentarily ataken back by the tears that streaked down her   
cheeks. The Sarah of his memory had never cried, not so openly, not   
in front of him.  
  
"I won't." Jareth frowned as anger began to smolder in his   
severe features.  
  
"Don't push me..."   
  
"I won't!" Sarah cried, this time with more vehemence. "Take   
anything, anyone else, just not Melanie! Please Jareth, I beg you."   
This not of desperation was new, and this willingness to beg. The   
Sarah of youth had been a prideful thing.   
  
"What of value could you possibly have to bargain with   
Sarah?" She looked at him, pained for a moment, before   
straightening. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin in   
defiance, and answered.  
  
"Me Jareth. I offer myself. Myself, all of myself, for the   
child." Jareth sneered as he studied her in laughter.  
  
"You Sarah? You? What makes you possibly think that I would   
want you now, when twenty years of age has scarred and weighed upon   
you? What makes you think that you have held my interest for so long,   
you impetuous mortal, you child who was part of my world for less than  
a day?" Sarah looked away, briefly, before looking back at him. She   
took one step forward before replying so softly he could barely hear.  
  
"I offer you the woman who beat you, the Goblin King. Who   
triumphed. Rule me Jareth, only let this child be, and I will swear   
my loyalty to you. You shall be my King." There was silence inside   
of the nursery for a long time, silence broken only by a sleeping   
baby's deep breathing and the sound of light rain hitting the now   
exposed carpet. Thunder sounded in the distance, a world away.   
Silence and then...  
  
Jareth was beside her once again, so close that Sarah could   
smell the cologne that he wore that had haunted her dreams for twenty   
years. Two fingers played with one lock of still brunette hair, hair   
not yet touched with silver, before he answered her in a voice just as   
quiet.  
  
"Very well." Sarah stepped away, broke the uncomfortable   
contact.  
  
"I want your word, your promise as all you are and all you   
will ever be, that Melanie shall not know you. That she will never be   
known in the Labyrinth. That even, should she beg, that your world   
will be closed to her. That she will grow up ignorant of true magic   
and the fulfillment of her fantasies. That she will live in blindness   
like the rest of this world."   
  
"Very well, you have my word." Sarah shook but pushed   
farther, despite the coolness in Jareth's voice.   
  
"Your promise." He hissed but Sarah did not retract her   
words.  
  
"You mistrust me that much Sarah? When did I ever lie to   
you."   
  
"Never," she whispered, "But you twist words so well Jareth.   
Please, I need to hear the promise." He stared at her for a long   
moment; she felt the weight of his gaze upon her, even if she refused   
to meet it now, before replying evenly enough, despite his anger.  
  
"I promise." Sarah's strength broke after that, and several   
more tears slipped by her defenses to be seen by Jareth's too   
observant eyes. They gleamed in the light of the stars, and in the   
trusty night-light that cast the room in blue. She walked, unsteady,   
with Jareth as her shadow, to the crib's side. She placed Melanie in   
it, tucked her teddy under one arm, and pulled her blankets up,   
tucking the girl in. She leaned over and kissed Melanie, her   
daughter's, sleeping cheek, before straightening and turning.   
  
Jareth held one ungloved hand out. She started at it for a   
long moment before asking.  
  
"Devon?" Jareth smiled again and it was a hard, glittering   
thing.  
  
"To your fiancé," the word, a distasteful thing, was spat,   
"and this world you will be nothing more than a dream. There will be   
no going back after this. You shall belong to the Labyrinth. You   
shall belong to me." There was a finality to his words that was   
especially heart wrenching but what choice did she have?   
  
Sarah swallowed, stole one last look at Melanie, and accepted   
Jareth's outstretched hand. The King of the Goblins laughed as he   
brought her home. 


	3. Chapter Two: Princely Advice

AN: Umm, I would have had this out sooner but for one thing... Damn   
Harry Potter... I read the bloody third book in one sitting. I'm   
trying not to crack the fourth because I won't sleep till dawn.   
*breathes deeply* 'Must have self control...' My one weakness is a   
good story, written or read... =)  
  
*a pompous man struts onto the expectant stage... he clears his throat   
and speaks as a hush falls over the audience*  
  
"Standard Disclaimers apply."   
  
*he waits for applause and frowns, slightly disgruntled as there are a   
few helpless titters from the now amused audience before stalking off   
the stage*  
  
Please review... Reviews=Story... God I love blackmail... LOL  
  
PS: Thanks SO much to everyone who has reviewed so far! =) You guys   
rock!  
  
  
  
********************* Sacrifices: Chapter Two *****************  
  
  
  
Jareth sighed as he smoothed back some of Sarah's hair as she slept at   
his command. Bringing her here, again, had cost him much of his power,  
all that he had left after visiting her that is. She murmured,   
troubled by her dreams, and he breathed a word of command and deepened   
her slumber to guarantee that she would not awake. She would need her   
rest after the journey; he had had to drain much of her own strength   
in order to transport them the last of the way to the Underground.   
  
He studied her intensely as she slept and was pleased, despite earlier   
evidence, by what he saw. It was true, what she had said in a fit of   
anger, she was no longer the girl he had brought to his home to defeat   
him so many years ago. The strength, the spirit, the wide-eyed wonder   
was not gone but all of it was tempered by wisdom, knowledge, and   
patience. This was no rash child on the edge of blooming into woman   
hood. This was a woman, grown, flowered, beauty itself instead of   
merely beauty's promise.  
  
True there were laugh lines, by her mouth and at the corners of her   
eyes, and one wrinkled that persisted, even as she dreamed, on her   
brow, a worry line. She was no longer a child, and she was even more   
beautiful now, after twenty years stood between them.  
  
He stepped back as he visibly controlled himself, let his hand trail   
along her cheek and fall regretfully away. Jareth sighed, growled at   
the twists life threw at him, that he threw at himself, and vanished.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
  
He materialized in the throne room and raised his brows at the being   
waiting for him. Drevlyn, Prince of the Dragons, rose and let his   
scrying spell fade from outstretched fingers before greeting his blood   
brother.  
  
"The Court will exile you for this. You had permission to bring back   
a baby, not a woman. What the hell were you thinking?" Jareth's   
dangerous gaze narrowed slightly and Drevlyn bit his tongue.   
  
The two had grown up as brothers, pledged themselves as blood   
brothers, and had the scars to prove that pledge was worthy. But   
Drevlyn was not yet King of the Dragons. In Jareth's home he bowed   
before the King, even if he could remember Jareth as a fumbling   
toddler.   
  
"I am not some lowly born Sidhe Drevlyn, I'm High Sidhe, I'm King of   
the Goblins. I informed the Court of my intentions as a common   
courtesy. I am a King though and in my realm they have no power over   
me." Drevlyn snorted and smoke was expelled from his nostrils.   
  
In 'human' form Dragons managed to pass reasonably well as humanoid.   
They shaped their bodies into human form but kept traces of their true   
scales, which streaked their under skin with layers of colors. They   
had no hair, at all, but many had spikes and crests which started at   
the traditional human hairline and stretched down to mid back.   
Infamous Dragon wings and tails were made to vanish for   
maneuverability's sake. Only the eyes remained truly unchanged. They   
were large, expressive, slitted like a cat's, and intimidating to all   
whom met them.   
  
Jareth was one of the few High Sidhe without Dragon blood who was able   
to transform as easily as he did, into an owl. Dragons were the only   
other creature who could leap from form to form as effortlessly as   
he. They were, besides that notable fact, one of the least magical of   
all the races which comprised the Sidhe Court, which was fortunate. A   
fully-grown, untransformed adult Dragon was easily twenty-five feet   
snout to tail tip, with a thirty-foot wingspan. Without the easy   
mastering of transformation the Great Hall in the High Court's Castle   
would have had to be enlarged simply to accommodate the extra bulk.   
  
Drevlyn himself was colored dark, his skin a motley assortment of   
blues, indigoes, and violets. His human form, like his Dragonic one,   
was slim, wiry, and fast. He moved like lightning... He had one   
trail of flexible spikes, almost black, which indeed gave him the   
appearance of hair, and his eyes were a flat reptilian yellow that   
proved him an interesting starring partner. He was barely a match for   
Jareth.  
  
"Why the woman Jareth?" Jareth ignored the question for a moment as   
he conjured a crystal and absently twirled it with deft fingers.   
Drevlyn stalked closer to him, persistent despite the moodiness he   
sensed in the King of the Goblins.  
  
"Why Jareth? You do nothing without a reason." The crystal   
disappeared with a sleight of hand. He looked up, met Drevlyn's   
yellow gaze, and pursed his expressive mouth before replying slowly,   
unwillingly.  
  
"Because She offered herself to me. Herself for the baby I went to   
claim. I can't refuse Her Drevlyn; I never could." The Dragon's   
piercing gaze softened for a moment.  
  
"Her?" Jareth looked away.  
  
"She will not love you," Drevlyn said even softer, though the words   
still cut. Jareth growled and lightning shattered the deathly silence   
in the throne room.  
  
"She promised herself to me. She is my subject as surely as any of   
the goblins. A life for a life." Drevlyn shrugged gracefully before   
strolling over and taking Jareth's throne with a slouch of utter   
indifference. The Goblin King raised tailored brows, suddenly   
exasperated.  
  
"Subtle Drevlyn, subtle. She shall not interfere with my duties. I   
know my responsibilities, better than you." The Dragon Prince blinked   
reptilian eyes as he languished, ignoring the jibe, before turning to   
stare at his proclaimed brother. Jareth held his flat stare and that,   
more than anything, proclaimed him and his worthy of Dragon's Trust.  
  
"She promised you Her fealty, not Her love Jareth. Even I know enough   
about mortals to know that there is a difference between the two."  
  
"I am a just King Drevlyn. My subjects care for me. You think She   
wouldn't too, in time?" Drevlyn laughed dryly.  
  
"That's another thing, Goblin King. The Sidhe Court won't take Her   
appearance lightly, much less Her immortality." It was Jareth's turn   
to shrug, totally unrepentant, and the movement was fierce, hard.  
  
"It was necessary," he replied in the cool tones of controlled,   
clipped anger. "Her mind and body were well set in Her world. It   
cost more than I thought to bring Her. Babies and children... still   
unformed, still finding out who they are, they are indeed much   
easier." Drevlyn coughed.  
  
"So you burned Her mortality away for magic. Convenient if you ask   
me." The King of the Goblins glared fiercely.  
  
"I didn't." Drevlyn rose with a yawn, stretched wiry limbs, and bowed   
with only a hint of mockery in his movement. Bowed because Jareth was   
a King and he had earned Dragon's Trust.  
  
"As you most pointedly reminded me, I have duties to attend to. Let   
me know about any new developments and be careful Jareth... Even King   
of the Goblins can be burned by mortals." Jareth smiled grimly and   
dipped his head in acknowledgment of Drevelyn's respect.  
  
"Oh, I know that much Dragon Prince. Your treasure shall be safe. I   
know all too well the pain that mortals can inflict and I'll not soon   
be forgetting, not with Her." He didn't use Sarah's name; he didn't   
have to. There was only one Her in the Goblin King's World and all   
the Sidhe Court knew it, if for different reasons than Drevlyn.   
Drevlyn nodded, reassured, and opened a portal that showed quite   
clearly, Draco Castle rising against the backdrop of the Labyrinth   
Mountains. An ordinary Dragon would have transformed and flown the   
journey but Drevlyn was far from ordinary. Unlike his kin, he was   
blessed with abnormal power and magical ability. He would have had to   
been, to maintain Jareth's interest so long, even as children Jareth   
was a very demanding play mate.   
  
That was one thing that fascinated Jareth about Sarah... She had no   
magic but she was just as alluring, just as damn fascinating as the   
most magical being Jareth had ever come across.   
  
"Happy huntings," Drevlyn called. Jareth's eyes flickered at the   
double meaning but returned the traditional parting...  
  
"And fair skies." Drevlyn took one step backward, through the portal,   
and let it close with a snap, leaving Jareth alone, or almost alone.   
Almost but not for long. He resisted the urge to conjure a ball to   
check in on his latest subject and strode off to attend to the matters   
of his realm that he had left half finished in his hurry. He could   
wait... he had waited twenty years. He could, would, must wait for   
just a little while longer. 


	4. Chapter Three: An Old Friend

AN: Sorry for the long wait, ya'll. Thanks for being patient while my   
little Harry Potter fascination ran its course. Hope you enjoy this   
chapter... Next chapter should have a bit more, well stuff, as well   
as, ohhh, the beginning of the real plot. What is the real plot? I   
haven't the foggiest, but then I never do. The trick is to dig   
yourself into a writer's pit and somehow manage to pull yourself out   
after a sufficient number of chapters. But shhhh, I didn't tell you. ;)  
  
Standard disclaimers apply, as always.  
  
PS: If you're curious, I've been working on a small Labyrinth site,   
along with several others. Hoping to finish them all soon, as well as   
the dozen stories I have going/ planned out. =)  
  
http://www.geocities.com/keimain   
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Chapter 3~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
Sarah woke slowly, with a luxurious stretch, as sunlight bathed her   
face and closed eyes with warmth. A worrying thought nagged at her   
still fumbling mind and she pushed it away. Her nose wrinkled though.  
  
She hadn't slept long enough for the sun to wake her in years. Ever   
since Devon and Melanie had become a part of her life she had gotten   
used to early mornings. Devon was an early riser by nature and Mel   
never slept past sunrise unless she was sick. That child was much too   
full of energy. Sarah considered herself a young thirty-five but even   
she had trouble keeping up with the toddler.   
  
She rolled over, disturbed by the unearthly silence in the bedroom.   
Devon may be an early riser but he was a deep sleeper. Mountains   
bowed before the power of his snores. Her still foggy mind panicked   
enough at the cool empty place beside her that she woke fully, woke   
and realized the error of her sleep filled memory.   
  
And for some reason the pain seemed so much worse than it would have   
been without the feeling of loosing them all over again. Tears welled   
up against her will and Sarah viscously repressed them. Tears and   
sorrow could come later. She needed answers now.  
  
The room she was in was larger than the master bedroom she and Devon   
shared but it had an empty, unused feeling to it. It was clean   
enough, if almost bare of decoration, and Sarah shivered as bare feet   
touched the cold stone floor. She drew her robe closer around her for   
warmth and sighed. It was just her luck. She had allowed Jareth to   
kidnap her in a bathrobe. A pink, fuzzy bathrobe. Devon had gotten   
it for her for her birthday after a mischevious Toby had 'innocently'   
informed his future brother in law of his sister's 'favorite' color.   
Her throat constricted with the thought of Devon and Toby. With the   
thought of them both forgetting her. At least she had pajamas on   
underneath.   
  
She ignored the balcony door for the moment after leaving the large   
queen sized bed, complete with rumpled cream colored sheets that   
Martha Stewart would have killed to get. The last time she had been   
here the Castle hadn't seemed like the cheeriest place but apparently   
gothic and ornate everything was the current fashion. If the Goblin   
Kingdom had fashion trends...  
  
Instead she padded softly over to a vanity where she sat on the   
stool. A tired, frightened looking woman looked back from the   
silvered mirror. Sarah sighed at the dark circles under her eyes and   
the image copied her actions. She bit one full lip and reached out,   
letting fingertips rest against the cool mirror with a sneaking   
wonder.   
  
Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus and his trusty stead Ambrosious... She had   
called on them often enough in the time following her first encounter   
with Jareth. Or she had, until they no longer answered; though not   
from any action or unaction of their own, of that Sarah was quite   
sure... Jareth was many things, including spiteful. She wouldn't be   
at all surprised if he had blocked their visits when he learned of   
them. But now? Now she wasn't Aboveground; now she was here, where   
they were. Surely they could answer her now, couldn't they?   
  
"Hoggle?" she whispered, called, prayed. There was a moment of   
stillness before, before a much missed, much beloved form appeared in   
her mirror. She didn't turn to try to find him, not yet. She knew   
how it worked. First she called, then he answered, then he came in   
truth.  
  
Hoggle stared at her hungrily, surprised, and then radiant. "Sarah!"   
he gasped as tears ran down creased cheeks. "Sarah, how? Jareth   
closed the portals, all of them except his. Damn man had to keep ye   
all ta himself." She smiled through suddenly present tears as her   
whole palm rested against the mirror. Sarah laughed through her   
tears, though her words quaked.  
  
"Look around Hoggle. Jareth didn't reopen the portals... he brought   
me here, to the Labyrinth, where you don't need a portal to step   
between worlds and stand by my side." Hoggle gaped as his eyes   
widened. Sarah closed her own tortured gaze and when she opened them   
again she turned. Hoggle was before her, arms held awkwardly at his   
sides. Sarah flung herself at her friend and he held her, the best   
she could, as she wept, made uncomfortable by her foreign tears yet   
willing to do whatever it took to calm her.  
  
"Sarah," he finally asked when she calmed enough to be led back to the   
bed where they sat, facing each other, "what happened?" Several more   
tears fell from her dark, pained gaze, before she managed to answer.   
She had never told him, any of them, of her final deal with Jareth,   
after all- what need had she then? She had sworn, as she had put Toby   
back in his crib that fateful night twenty years ago that she would   
never, never bear a child. Her promise would go unfulfilled, or so she   
had thought.   
  
Hoggle sat through it all, intent, listening, his face clouding with   
anger as she spoke. At the end of the tale, when Sarah was out of   
tears, her friend stood and paced, furious, muttering. She watched   
him; drained but comforted by his much missed gruff presence.  
  
"How the hell could Jareth do that ta ye? Damn him Sarah... I never   
knew, I never guessed. He always was a peculiar one- who would have   
thought he would have been stupid enough to fall in love with you. He   
ain't sensitive enough for a mortal. I thought he was bright enough   
ta realize that.   
  
"All those rumors and none of us have ever guessed the truth. 'Oh the   
mighty Jareth is plotting the downfall of the girl who bested him...'   
The Sidhe Court has laughed at the Goblin Kingdom for twenty years   
because Jareth's been mooning over you and we've all thought he was   
plotting yer downfall..." Sarah tried to concentrate on Hoggle's   
words but she couldn't focus. It was as if even the small effort she   
had made was too much. His rant flowed around her like a river. She   
yawned hugely and, bereft entirely of further energy, curled up and   
went to sleep.  
  
Hoggle's tirade stopped abruptly. He glared, first at the sleeping   
form on the bed, and then at the surrounding room. "Come out Jareth,   
I know yer here." There was a moment of silence and then gentle   
chiding from the Goblin King.  
  
"Higgle, Higgle... I thought I taught you better than that. The Bog   
of Eternal Stench still awaits you, oh valiant knight." Hoggle rose   
to the mockery in Jareth's tone.  
  
"The name is Hoggle, which ye know very well Jareth." Jareth knelt   
and Hoggle swallowed heavily as he met his master's mismatched gaze.   
  
"Careful, careful," Jareth admonished with one wagging finger. "Such   
lack of disrespect could have serious effect on your future plans."   
Hoggle wavered before his resolve hardened, and his rage returned.   
  
"Fine," he ranted, "throw me in the Bog of Eternal Stench, see how   
much Sarah will love you then! Because that's what yer after, isn't   
it 'King' Jareth? She's famous both for beatin the Labyrinth and for   
yer obsession with her but we never figured out why ye never stopped   
caring, why her memory ate away at you so! The entire Sidhe realm   
never learned why ye couldn't just let 'Her' go- not because 'She'   
beat ye, but because she refused you... because you couldn't have   
her." Jareth's fury matched, and surpassed Hoggle's indignation.   
  
"You tread on dangerous ground Hoggle." The small man swallowed   
nervously before replying.  
  
"And ye aren't? Are ye mad Jareth? Ta bring a babe Underground- all   
High Sidhe do. They enjoy toying with mortals. Ta bring the child   
she was- that was riskier- but ta bring a woman? What foolishry was   
running through yer thick skull? You should have taken her before   
now if ye meant to bring her at all... Ta bring her here now- that is   
cruel Jareth, even for ye." Jareth's anger simmered, cooled as he   
attempted to control himself.  
  
"I did not take anyone Hoggle. I went to claim what I was owed... a   
part of Sarah. She wouldn't give me even that. I could have forced   
her, and that would have been cruel. She offered herself, all of   
herself, as a sacrifice, and I accepted.   
  
"Her choice Hoggle, not mine." Hoggle snorted.  
  
"But ye didn't say no, did ye? Ye know Sarah better than me, of that   
I won't argue but even I knew of the depth of love she was capable of   
for others. Did ye never think that it wouldn't turn out this way   
Jareth? That she wouldn't do anything ta save her child in the   
end?"  
  
"I am your King," Jareth hissed, " and hers too. I do not have to   
answer to my subjects." Hoggle stared at him, defeated, tired.  
  
"Ye offered yer self to her once before and she rejected you. What   
makes ye think she'll accept now?" Jareth rose, towered over the   
small man, rage blazing forth from his terrifying eyes. He raised his   
hand to banish his meddlesome underling when Hoggle's next words   
stopped him cold.  
  
"What will ye do when she angers ye Goblin King? Banish her too?"   
Jareth snarled and with a flick of his finely boned wrist sent the   
misshapen being to the beginning of the Labyrinth, where the too   
astute creature belonged, instead of the darkest parts of the   
Oubliette or the Bog of Eternal Stench where he longed to throw him.   
His words had cut too close to the painful truth.   
  
He brooded for a moment over Sarah's sleeping form before turning to   
the mirror. One violently flung glittering crystal shattered the   
mirror into a thousand sharp edged pieces. Jareth glared at them for   
a moment before reordering them with a word. The mirror, cracked but   
now whole, showed him his furious reflection. With another harshly   
spoken word the King of the Goblins made any possibility of further   
portals impossible.  
  
He whirled, mouth tight, as he stared at the slumbering woman. He   
took one step forward, hand outstretched, before wrenching himself   
away with a cry. He was Her King and She would come to him. She   
would love him and then, and only then, would he allow himself to love   
Her back. He would not offer himself again. He would not be rejected   
again. 


	5. Chapter Four: Memory

AN: Just a short chapter to tide ya'll over... =) Sorry about its   
length but it was a natural spot to stop... otherwise the next   
chapter would be unnaturally long and then you guys would really start   
expecting a lot out of me. =) Take care.. Please review!!  
  
Standard disclaimers apply, duh. ;-P   
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Chapter Four~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
Sarah woke again; much more herself in that she remembered all   
that she had given up, had lost, with her first conscious thought.   
  
"You've been sleeping for a long time Sarah..." She jerked   
up, dark eyes focusing on Jareth, King of the Goblins. He was leaning   
nonchalantly against the door frame of her room, dressed   
monochromatically in blues, from star strewn dark blue tights, to a   
sky blue jacket that went over a silver, ruffled shirt. He raised   
mocking brows. "I was starting to think that you'd never wake up..."   
Sarah sat up and ran a shaking hand through long, tangled hair,   
temporarily ignoring the Goblin King. It was a convenient way that   
she had developed to deal with stress. It had mixed results.   
  
Light steps took her back to the vanity. She tried to put her   
wild hair in a knot but it resisted. Her breath left her as, fast as   
a flash; Jareth was by her side. Silver-gloved hands touched her hair   
and it responded to his touch by curling and twisting around his fine   
boned fingers.   
  
"Its much longer. Have you cut it at all?" Sarah stepped   
away with a swallow and her hair, reluctantly, followed. She walked   
back to the bed and sat, nervous, at its edge, eyes resolutely fixed   
on her hands and her imperfect, unpolished, nails. Boots came into   
her view moments later and that same insistent hand reached down to   
take one of hers.   
  
Sarah tried to resist but it went to Jareth on its own will,   
proof that the parts did not always bow to the wisdom of the whole.   
He held her hand gently, palm upward, and traced the lines and   
wrinkles and creases and calluses that time had left. Sarah had not   
spent twenty years idly. Fingertips gloved in silk stilled, dwelled,   
on one extraordinarily large scar that stretched, ragged, vivid,   
white, from pinkie to the base of her wrist.   
  
"How?" Jareth asked, though the question held nothing but   
command. Sarah swallowed again.  
  
"It, it was a car accident," she replied softly, not cowed but   
subdued. Silence and then...  
  
"There is more." It wasn't a question.   
  
"Yes," she hissed and tried to reclaim her hand. It was held   
firm. She relaxed, temporarily defeated. Jareth wasn't like other   
men. His presence was overwhelming, but never overpowering. Had he   
been anything but the man he was he wouldn't get an answer from her.   
He wouldn't be holding her hand. "There, there was glass everywhere,   
and screaming. I'll never forget the screaming as long as I live.   
  
"Later I found out it had been a drunk driver. He had sped   
out of control, rammed the mini van the lane next to mine. The van   
slammed into my driver's side. Three fatalities. I was almost number   
four. If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for Devon..." Her mouth,   
trembling, stopped at her ex-fiancé's name. She snatched her   
traitorous hand away from Jareth's and turned her back to the Goblin   
King.   
  
Sarah held one quaking breath as she sensed his hand poised by   
her shoulder and then, when she turned around moments later, Jareth   
was gone. Sarah expelled her breath and, finally alone, studied her   
palm, face remote.   
  
If it hadn't been for Devon she would have died that night.   
She had been lying there, in her crushed civic, the smell of gas in   
the air, and hell's fires dancing in front of her vacant eyes. She   
had heard sirens distantly, and shouting, voices, but nothing had   
pierced the fog of her shock save the screams of those burning alive   
in the car next to her, the screams and Devon's voice.   
  
Devon had crawled through the wreckage of three cars, had torn   
away the warped door with his bare hands and had pulled Sarah from the   
wreckage before the first firefighter had arrived. Her only permanent   
physical scar had been the one on her hand, and one other, hidden by   
her regrown hair. Devon would sport the scars from hot metal for the   
rest of his life.  
  
He was her knight in shining armor. He was her rescuer, her   
prince. He had ridden in the ambulance that had borne her to the   
hospital. She had sought him out, weeks later, to thank him, the man   
who had saved her life. One lunch had led to dinner, and later, to   
nights. She had never dated a man with children before but she and   
Mel, she and Mel had hit it off from the start. There was no   
awkwardness, no difficulty. She had become a part of their life,   
seamlessly, and it had been so right, so perfect.  
  
And she had lost it all... No that wasn't fair and Sarah   
always tried to be fair, if only to everyone but herself. She had   
made a hypothetical deal with the 'devil'. She should have expected   
to get burned. Her child for her life... She had sworn it and Jareth   
had accepted her promise on good faith. Just as he had accepted her   
new deal, with bland amused acknowledgment.   
  
And now she was here, in the Labyrinth, for good. She had   
used defiance and rebelliousness and sheer grit to survive twenty   
years ago. She had labeled the King of the Goblins as a demon, a   
thing to be hated, but god, it went so much deeper, was so much more   
complex than that. For thirteen hours her world had been black and   
white. How the hell was she supposed to deal with the place as it was   
now, a world of grays?   
  
What were the new rules? What was the game? At least before   
there had been set rules, had been something, anything for her to   
cling to but now? She had sworn herself to the Goblin King but she   
had no idea what that meant. What that entailed.   
  
Frustrated, restless, Sarah rose and went to her balcony   
doors. She threw them open and was surprised by the rush of cold   
air. She almost withdrew but abruptly changed her mind, drawing her   
bath robe closer for warmth as she stepped hesitatingly onto the   
marble balcony and leaned on the ornate stone railing. The Goblin   
City was an odd assortment of buildings and chimneys below her, the   
Labyrinth stretched into the hills beyond, and the world, the world   
was framed on all sides by dark mountains that stretched longingly   
towards the sky. It was beautiful, beautiful in a magical sort of way   
that Sarah had long ago stopped believing in, for her own sanity.   
  
It was clear tonight and Sarah lifted her face, bathing it in   
the silver light of the moon and stars. She ignored her tears and   
sighed before opening her dark, unreadable gaze. One hand, on its own   
free will, stretched longingly towards the heavens, towards those   
silver stars.  
  
"I wish I may, I wish I might..." Her voice trailed away and   
died before she finished the fanciful rhyme bitterly, "I wish none of   
my dreams come true, ever again. I might not survive next time."   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
In a room in the heart of Jareth's castle a golden egg   
gleamed, nestled in silk pillows and cashmere blankets. Gleamed and   
rocked once, violently, before subsiding. The surface of the great   
egg, nearly four feet tall and three wide, gleamed with swirls of   
yellow and emerald green.   
  
There was a gentle sigh and a slight scratching that came from   
inside the egg as it shifted position and calmed. It wasn't time, not   
yet, not quite yet but soon, soon. 


	6. Chapter Five: King Jareth

AN: Yes, an early Christmas present... LOL Please review and tons of thanks   
to all of you who have! Reviews really keep me going. =)  
  
I'm too tired to be creative... Standard disclaimers apply.  
  
Enjoy and Happy Holidays!  
  
  
********************Sacrifices: Chapter Five************************  
  
  
Sarah jumped, startled, as there was an insistent knock on her bedroom   
door. She rose, stretched, stiff from night spent out on the balcony,   
half-asleep but oddly alert. She padded through the room, only   
temporarily pausing before the vanity where the mirror was cracked but   
whole.   
  
"Hoggle..." she whispered, certain that he would not, could not come   
to answer her call. Certain that the cracked mirror was tangible   
evidence of Jareth's anger. He must have come to her room before,   
when she had fallen asleep during Hoggle's rant. She flushed guiltily   
at not remembering her friend last night, but Jareth... Jareth was so   
damn confusing, so daunting. She rarely had any thought but survival   
when he was near. The knocking came again.   
  
Sarah hesitated, hand on the ornate handle, before flinging the wooden   
giant open swiftly, before she could change her mind. "Where's   
Hoggle," she demanded, defiant, to a being who she assumed to be   
Jareth. The small goblin like girl before her blanched and took a   
step back at the wild picture Sarah presented.  
  
"Mistress..." the girl squeaked in reply, "I haven't the foggiest...   
I was sent to see to your comforts..." Sarah leaned against the   
doorframe with a sigh and another flush.   
  
"I... I'm sorry. Please, come in... I should have known that Jareth   
would never use the door, let alone knock," she muttered, half bitter,   
to herself. Sarah stepped back and the goblin girl stepped warily   
inside. Sarah studied her...  
  
The girl was small, probably only about three feet... Her features   
were small, from blue eyes to a snub nose. Short curly hair framed a   
round face and she was stocky, not fact, but definitely stocky. She   
wasn't ugly though, like many of the goblins Sarah had seen on her   
last visit to the Labyrinth. She certainly wasn't human though. The   
goblin girl curtsied promptly, eyes downcast, in front of Sarah as   
soon as the door closed.  
  
"What on earth are you doing?" Sarah asked, perplexed. She had come   
to this place as a subject, not a conqueror, not a fighter, not this   
time. There was no reason at all for this girl to be bowing to her.   
For all Sarah knew it should be the other way around. Sarah had never   
been comfortable, or familiar, with class distinctions. She had grown   
up, and had lived, in suburbia America. There were nicer houses,   
nicer cars, but for the most part people were measured by their   
actions and contributions, not their money or power.   
  
She was here because Jareth allowed it, not other reason. She did not   
know her present position or her anything about her future. She might   
be the one greeting guests one-day soon, curtsey and all, and she   
would, she would to pay her debt. To pay for Melanie's future.  
  
The girl rose. "I'm Hellin Mistress Sarah. I was sent to see to your   
comforts... Clothes, food, a bath..." Despite herself Sarah's eyes   
lit up, the brown warming to amber.   
  
"Bath?" she asked, hopefully, quite aware of her disheveled   
appearance. Suddenly she felt dirty, in a travel worn sort of way.   
The thought of hot water and soap was heaven. Hellin blushed and   
ducked her head before bobbing it in answer.  
  
"Yes Mistress, if you'll follow me." Sarah hesitated a moment before   
following the goblin girl, clutching her robe close. She was lost in   
minutes. The halls wound, turned, branched out in a dozen different   
directions, and were quite empty. It was odd, finding out how big   
this place was, and lonely. Their footsteps echoed eerily.  
  
Finally they turned into a small alcove where there was a blessedly   
simple door. Hellin opened it to reveal a perfectly round, windowless   
chamber, which was brightly lit. There was a large wash tub, a   
fireplace complete with comfortably roaring fire, a stand with soap   
and large white fluffy towels, and a dressing screen. Hellin bowed   
again as Sarah stepped happily into the room.  
  
"I shall be back in an hour," the goblin girl announced before   
slamming the door. Sarah's joy drained as she heard the distinct   
click of a heavy frame locking. She scrambled to the door and tried   
it... It was quite assuredly dead bolted. She swallowed her   
uneasiness, more due to the fact that she was helpless to do anything   
about it, then because of the fact that she trusted her hosts. She   
swore softly but was drawn, none the less, to the bath.   
  
Sarah stared at it, untrusting, for several long moments, before   
shrugging off her robe and dirty pajamas and sitting down in the   
porcelain tub. There wasn't a faucet or drain, simply a white tub   
full of near boiling water, but she couldn't care less. It felt   
wonderful. One part of her mind tried to whisper worries about a not   
so scrupulous and unrepentant King's curiosity but she ignored the   
voice. She hadn't forgotten the way he had touched her hair, had held   
her hand, hadn't forgotten twenty years past when he had offered   
himself to her, but it was simply one more thing that she had no   
control over. It didn't mean that she wouldn't, quite belligerently,   
confront him when she came face to face with him again, but it would   
have to wait. Besides, her water was cooling.   
  
Sarah languished, soaped, rinsed, soaped again. She always had been a   
water fiend. Devon had always laughed and told her that she swam like   
a seal, or a mermaid. The thought of Devon shattered her reverie and   
brought more tears. Unwanted but there, they slipped from hazel eyes   
to join the soapy bath water. Despite her sorrow Sarah was genuinely   
enjoying herself. The hour flew by quicker than she could have   
believed possible. There was, too soon, a tentative knock on the   
locked door, a click of a lock opening, and a muffled, "Mistress?"   
  
"One second," Sarah called as she rose and wrapped a towel around her   
before stepping out of the tub and behind the changing screen.   
"Okay," she called to Hellin, "come in." The goblin girl shuffled   
in.  
  
"Mistress Sarah, come and get your clothes..." Sarah, who had just   
been about to pull on her grimy pajamas and robe stepped out   
cautiously, still in her towel, brow wrinkled.  
  
"Clothes?" she started and stopped, face an utter blank as she saw the   
dress in Hellin's arms. It was her ball room dress, or at least a   
very close copycat. It was beautiful, in a whimsical way that Sarah   
remembered only too well. White and silver, sparkling, pure, perfect,   
even half-trailing on the floor because of Hellin's height.  
  
"I'm not wearing that," Sarah snapped, though her voice shook. Hellin   
flinched at the fury in her Mistress's voice.   
  
"But Mistress Sarah... King Jareth set it out especially for you."   
Sarah trembled, undecided... Not because she wished to do Jareth's   
will, but because she was afraid, for Melanie's sake, not to. She   
knew how fickle the Goblin King could be, how capricious.   
  
"Did... did he order me to wear this gown." Hellin looked at Sarah in   
obvious confusion before replying, slowly.  
  
"No Mistress, he ordered nothing." Sarah's shoulders sagged in relief   
and she nodded crisply.   
  
"Then I shall stay in my own clothes, thank you very much." Sarah   
whirled and went behind the screen to grab her robe and pajamas. They   
were gone. There was a note, propped up on the floor where her   
garments had been, with her name on it. Sarah picked it up, mouth a   
set frown, and winced as she read the scrawled message.  
  
'Wear the damn dress Sarah...'  
  
"Bastard," she whispered.   
  
****************************************************************  
  
"Are you hungry Mistress Sarah?" Sarah stepped out from behind the   
screen, fully clothed in her splendid gown, face a mask of anger.  
  
"No thank you Hellin." Hellin looked at her Mistress, face timid,   
before venturing a question.  
  
"Why... why are you so angry Mistress? The gown is very fine. It was   
a grand gesture on part of my King Jareth, was it not? I do not   
understand..." Sarah swallowed, felt eyes watching her, and shivered.  
  
"I... This brings back so many memories," Sarah finally whispered by   
way of response and one hand unconsciously trailed down to absently   
stroke the white and silver silk.   
  
"Good or bad?" Hellin asked, voice hushed, as if afraid to break   
Sarah's recollection. Music, laughter, dancing, and two strong hands   
that anchored her to a man she could never trust but would always be   
drawn to...  
  
"Just memories," she responded faintly. "So many memories." Her hand   
rose and fingers stroked a large scar on the other palm. Sarah shook   
herself back to the present, face pale.  
  
"I think that I would like to go back to my room, now." Hellin bobbed   
in a graceful curtsey and turned without acknowledging her Mistress's   
sudden change in moods.  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
Sarah got no less lost on the way back. After another clueless   
interval of walking they arrived at a semi familiar door. Hellin   
opened it and went through. Sarah followed her, still lost in   
thought, and bumped into the girl who had frozen just inside the   
doorway to bow so low her forehead almost scraped the stone floor.   
  
Jareth was lounging, damn that man always looked so collected!, on the   
vanity, customary smirk firmly on his sharp features. A mismatched   
gaze studied Sarah openly for several moments too long to be   
comfortable, though Jareth was not a man one was often comfortable   
around period.   
  
"You may rise Hellin," he said and flicked his wrist at the goblin   
girl. The girl bobbed her head and stepped aside, next to the bed,   
leaving Jareth's line of view open.   
  
"Come," he commanded imperiously, and waved Sarah irritably closer.   
She balked for a full second, feet firmly planted as she bristled but,   
with a swallow of pride, obeyed slowly by stepping from the doorway   
and fully into the room.   
  
Sarah stared straight ahead as Jareth rose and circled her, like a   
hawk, or an owl, still studying her. Finally he stopped his predatory   
pacing and stood, hands on hips, face annoyed.  
  
"No, you were right. That gown is hardly appropriate now." He waved   
his hand and the gown changed into a much simpler one. It was pale   
blue, still cut in Renaissance style, with long, flowing sleeves, a   
unflared skirt that brushed the bottom of the floor, gathered by a   
loose fabric belt of silver, and, a dismayed Sarah discovered, a   
rather low cut neckline.   
  
She was put off by such a tangible show of magic, especially when it   
concerned her body, but staring straight ahead in the still cracked   
mirror served to remind her about a piece of business she had to pick   
with the Goblin King.   
  
Sarah whirled and tried, somewhat in vain, to ignore the appreciative   
Jareth. "What did you do with Hoggle?" she demanded fiercely. Near   
the bed Hellin wilted.  
  
"Who?" Jareth asked in the irritating, lazy, uninterested way of his.   
He drifted closer and her hair, as if by magic, clung to his   
outstretched hand.  
  
"Hoggle," Sarah snapped. Jareth ignored her and smiled as he stroked   
a single persistent lock of sable brown. Sarah swallowed, growled,   
and whirled so that she faced the Goblin King and her lively hair was   
left to its own devices.   
  
"What did you do with Hoggle?" Jareth's smirk faded and hi mismatched   
gaze found hers. Sarah's chin lifted in unconscious defiance of the   
challenge she found there and Jareth was at her side in an instant.   
Gloved fingers touched her cheek, then her chin, as Sarah flushed but   
refused to move. He leaned forward until his lips were a mere inch   
from her ear; her face was warmed by his breath.  
  
"Who?" he whispered, velvety voice rich with amusement. Sarah started   
to tremble and, with visible effort, controlled herself. Her lids   
fluttered shut, lashes dark against vividly pale cheeks.   
  
"Hoggle," she replied even softer, through chapped lips. And suddenly   
the warmth was gone.   
  
Opened her eyes and found Jareth sprawled, once again, on the vanity,   
cheerfully twirling a peach. Sarah watched the fruit apprehensively.   
Jareth laughed at her and she seethed.  
  
"Hungry?" the King of the Goblins asked brightly. Sarah glowered.  
  
"No thank you." Jareth stopped, studied the peach for one intense   
moment, before taking a bite out of it with a shrug.  
  
"Pity," he said, raising his gaze to hers. Sarah refused to be   
baited, or misled.  
  
"Where is Hoggle Jareth?" The peach disappeared with an audible snap   
and Jareth rose once more, only this time there was deadly menace in   
his lanky frame. He stopped in front of her and stared down at her,   
every inch the regal Goblin King. There was the coldness and cruelty   
that Sarah remembered all too well...  
  
"Jareth?" he asked, voice mocking, dangerous. Sarah realized her   
error immediately, flushed, and looked away. Hellin shrank in   
terror.  
  
"Do you forget your pledge to me so soon Sarah? Do you break your   
vow?" She turned to him, panic on her face.  
  
"No... Jareth, King Jareth..." He studied her again but this time,   
this time the penetrating stare went deeper, searched longer. She did   
not, dared not, flinch or do anything but meet his furious glare the   
best she could, heart pounding. Finally Jareth nodded, though Sarah   
did not relax. He touched her chin again and the feel of the supple   
leather of his gloves was more intimate than Sarah cared for. Then   
again, that word described Jareth in all things, intimate.  
  
"Do not forget Sarah," he said, voice low, still angry, so intense,   
"that I am your King. Never forget." He held her gaze for another   
long moment before dropping his hand. Sarah nodded quickly.  
  
"I... I won't," she replied and hated herself when her own voice   
quaked I response to her inner terror. Jareth stepped away and   
summoned a crystal. He rolled it easily on his hand, temporarily   
ignoring Sarah, and she was grateful for a respite from his   
overwhelming personality. The crystal stopped and Sarah looked up,   
expectantly. Jareth never removed his gaze from the crystal.  
  
"I did not harm Hoggle," he spat the name. "I sent him to the   
beginning of the Labyrinth; that is all. He, nor any of the others,   
can visit you." Sarah felt the tension drain from her shoulders and   
relief replace it. Jareth was many things, but not a liar. He may   
twist words but he never broke them.   
  
"Thank you," she said hoarsely, but she was once again alone... Or   
almost alone. Hellin crept forward and tugged on Sarah's dress.   
Sarah stared down and met the goblin girl's solemn, yet terrified blue   
eyes.  
  
"You Mistress are very brave, very stupid, but very brave. I think   
that... despite whatever you pledged and King Jareth likes to think,   
that you are not like us. Jareth doesn't rule you, not like he does   
his goblins. You, you are almost like High Sidhe."   
  
"High Sidhe?" Sarah asked, curiosity piqued despite her drained   
emotions. Hellin nodded vigorously.  
  
"Yes Mistress Sarah, High Sidhe..." 


	7. Chapter Six: Immortality

AN: Hay ya'l... just a short chapter to tide ya'll over. Its mostly   
background information but it was necessary. ;) Thanks to everyone who   
reviewed... wohoo! I have three active fics going right now and this   
one gets updated the most because.... it gets the most feedback!! LOL   
Thanks to all who have reviewed multiple times (I luv hearing what   
ya'll thought about each new chapter) and who have visited my page/  
signed my guestbook. You guys are all great! Keep reading and   
writing!  
  
Standard disclaimers apply... forever and ever and ever and ever....  
  
  
  
  
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Six********************  
  
  
Drevlyn rose and gave Jareth a mocking little bow as he   
materialized in his private parlor. The scrying spell disappeared   
from the Dragon Prince's almost taloned fingers. Jareth glared.  
  
"I don't appreciate being spied on, especially in my own   
home." Drevlyn ignored Jareth's anger... He was aware of it; one did   
not ignore Jareth himself and live long, but for all practical   
purposes he ignored Jareth's anger and moods. It made conversations   
much more productive.   
  
"That was unnecessarily harsh. Do you expect to win her   
affections by cruelty and humiliation?" Jareth's mismatched eyes   
flamed.  
  
"No Prince Drevlyn," and he spat Prince like an unclean thing,   
"it was entirely necessary. I... I am not well loved by the Sidhe   
Court. They do not rule me but to some things I must answer for my   
actions, for the best of the Underground as a whole certain rules must   
be enforced, even among Kings." Jareth paused, looked away, and   
started pacing. Drevlyn, still standing, watched, mute.   
  
"I will have to present her as my subject. They will test her   
Drevlyn, Sarah would be a fine prize for any High Sidhe, now that she   
is barred from Aboveground."  
  
"Thanks to you," Drevlyn inserted, somewhat bitterly. He   
quieted in the face of Jareth's caged fury.  
  
"Dragons are a fine race and I hold Dragon's Trust dearly in   
my heart but you know your race is weak politically, at least for   
now." Together, for one breath, both men's thoughts drifted to the   
rocking egg hidden deep within Jareth's castle. "She must be mine, in   
every sense of the word Drevlyn or she shall be taken away." Jareth   
continued in a softer, though in no less angry voice. "Evirey would   
love her Drevlyn, you know that."  
  
"And would that be so bad?" Drevlyn asked, his voice also   
subdued. "Sarah distracts you Jareth, distorts things. Do you really   
have time to be playing with a girl who already refused all you had to   
offer? Evirey is not Tortar, or Draculo..." Jareth whirled on his   
friend, rage even more apparent as he hissed his reply.  
  
"Sarah might have refused all I had to offer but she did not   
wish to be loved by the Unicorns... She did not call upon the Unicorn   
Queen to take her to a world of magic and incense and crystals. She   
called upon the Goblin King Drevlyn. She gave me her future, not   
Evirey. Tortar and Draculo are not options. Evirey would vote for me   
if it came down to that. Even I am preferable to the Trolls or   
Vampires.  
  
"And as to the last of your claims I shall not win Sarah's   
affections. She will give them to me, when she chooses, in time."  
  
"Are you so sure about that?" Drevlyn demanded, skeptical.   
Jareth strode closer to his friend, until they were eye to mismatched   
eye. Drevlyn dared not look away; he was awed by the simple certainty   
in Jareth's carved features.  
  
"She dreamt of me for twenty years Drevlyn. I can hear my   
name, whenever, where ever its spoken... I've heard her whisper it   
Drevlyn. She may, she may not even know it passes her lips but I am   
not a memory forgotten, dead, and buried. I am alive within her. I   
am a part of her past and despite what mortals, what even some   
immortals like to believe, while the past may be sealed and set it   
will always change and shape you.   
  
"I am Sarah's past. Every breath, ever thought she formed for   
the last two decades had a part of me in them. She is drawn to me, as   
I am to her. It frightens her, terrifies her, but she cannot deny   
such attraction." Jareth smiled and it in itself was a terrifying   
thing. "Believe me, I've tried."  
  
"How long will you have before you must present Sarah to the   
Court?" Jareth shrugged, form once more relaxed, arrogant, all anger   
hidden.  
  
"Not long enough. Evirey watches me closely. I spent much of   
my power bringing Sarah here. Such expenditures shall not go long   
unnoticed." Drevlyn nodded.  
  
"I know."  
  
******************************************************************  
  
"High Sidhe?" Sarah asked. Hellin nodded vigorously.  
  
"Yes Mistress Sarah, High Sidhe."  
  
"I... I don't understand..." Hellin nodded again, as if she  
had expected this answer, and took Sarah's hand in her small one,   
leading her to the bed where they sat, Hellin's short legs swinging   
childlike, over the edge.   
  
"I thought you wouldn't. There are exactly four classes of   
people in the Underground; Non Sidhe, Low Sidhe, Middle Side, and High   
Sidhe. High Sidhe," Hellin's small mouth curved into a wistful smile,   
"that would be King Jareth, and all the other Kings and Queens.   
Middle Sidhe consists of nobles and the wealthy- the elite though not   
quite royal Sidhe. The Middle and High comprise all the voting   
members of the Sidhe Court, the ruling political and social   
institution of Underground.   
  
"Low Sidhe are the 'peasants' the 'craftsmen' the main body of   
the Underground. We run the kingdoms to the best of our ability."   
Sarah, though rapt, interrupted the goblin girl.   
  
"We?" Hellin blushed and continued.  
  
"Aye mistress. I am indeed Low Sidhe. That it why I am fit   
to serve you. Non Sidhe would be the goblins you saw on your last   
journey here. They amuse King Jareth with their bawdiness, even with   
their boldness." Sarah's brow wrinkled in confusion.  
  
"So Non Sidhe are..."  
  
"Non Sidhe are the lowest classed people of any kingdom. They   
are not slaves. The Underground, unlike Above, has never had slaves.   
They are the simpler minds though... How do I explain this... They   
are what was left behind when Underground chose civilization.   
  
"They reason and think and live but their lives, their   
worries, they woes are shallow things." Hellin stopped, unhappy with   
her descriptions but unable to think of more accurate ones. "They,   
they are not stupid. They are innocent Sarah, innocent in ways I   
sometimes wish I was. But they can also be dangerous.  
  
"Few wars are fought in our realm, despite the differences   
between the people who live here. The only ones capable of raising   
hand, claw, or talon against another are the Non Sidhe, and the High   
Sidhe."  
  
"You best and your worst," Sarah whispered. Hellin raised   
thick brows in query.  
  
"Our most carefree. Life means little to either one of them.   
High Sidhe because they are almost true immortals, Non Sidhe because   
they do not understand enough to fear their own mortality.  
  
"High Sidhe start our wars, Non Sidhe fight them among   
themselves, and Low and Middle Sidhe watch. There is little bloodshed   
but much, much pain. Children fighting wars is such an unclean thing,   
and that's what the Non Sidhe are much like, children..."   
  
"How, how is it determined, what 'rank' a child is? Is it   
blood or breeding?" Hellin shrugged.   
  
"I do not dare to try to understand, much less explain. It   
is, a little of all sorts of things. High Sidhe are High Sidhe, by   
blood or power. All others... once every ten years all the children   
birthed in that time are brought to the Sidhe Court. There's this   
place, called the Room of Fate. Its white..." Hellin's face clouded   
with memory. "A giant place, white walls and white candles and white   
chandeliers that hang from a ceiling obscured by white fog. You crowd   
among children from races that you've never even seen before, imagined   
before. You cower, you fear this pristine, magical place, no matter   
if you're a swaddling infant or a stout boy of ten.   
  
"And then you know, who and what you are. A voice... I've   
heard its different for every child, whispers to a place deep in your   
heart... whispers your true identity. There's no denying it, no   
faking, you are stamped with your future for eternity, however long   
eternity is for you. I don't remember much of the journey or the   
people, no matter how fantastic, but I can still hear that voice, like   
it was yesterday..." Hellin trailed off into silence before briskly   
shaking herself.   
  
"I'm lucky," she said frankly. "Both my parents were Non   
Sidhe. I love them dearly mind you but the Voice, the Room of Fate is   
never wrong. I am happy here, and I would not happy in any other   
place. I live to serve and that contents me." Sarah leaned forward   
and leaned on her elbows.  
  
"And why am I like High Sidhe?" Hellin laughed and it was not   
a light sound.  
  
"Because Mistress Sarah," the goblin girl replied with a small   
smile, "You are not afraid or barred from battle, and you are   
immortal."   
  
Sarah stood and promptly sat, her head reeling. "I... I'm what   
Hellin?" The goblin girl stared at her, eyes wide, and replied after   
a long, painful silence.  
  
"You didn't... you didn't know."  
  
"Didn't know what?" Sarah demanded. The goblin girl rose and   
backed slowly away, trembling.  
  
"Didn't know that you will be part of this place for   
eternity. That you will not age, that you cannot die unless you   
choose it or someone more powerful than you wills it. That..."   
Hellin bowed her head, "that Jareth took away your mortality. That   
because of your timelessness that you are barred from Aboveground.   
That you are one of us Mistress, in a sense never before achieved by a   
woman from Above. And you learned this all from me..." Hellin turned   
her heel, tears in her eyes, and ran, leaving Sarah open mouthed,   
behind.  
  
  
  
  
2nd AN: Expect Evirey to pop up in the next chapter, unnanounced of   
course. Also if you want a good movie check out Kate and Leopold. I   
thought the writing was very well done and wow... It was a really   
good chick flick. Just my personal, dreamer/hopeless romantic   
opinion that you all just *so* needed to hear. =) 


	8. Chapter Seven: My King

AN: Well... I've been banished to a not to be named town where I had no   
access to a computer and the biggest news has been the opening of a Walmart-   
for the last year. I wrote this chapter on post it notes, thank god I   
numbered them as I went, and without encouragement or the use of a spell   
checker, ikes! LOL... Anyway I got back and, to my surprise, had about   
ten new reviews for various stories and my SM page's counter had climbed   
past 6000 hits.   
  
Cool.  
  
Neway, keep those reviews, emails, hits coming. Hope you guys had a   
safe and Happy New Year. Welcome to 2002!  
  
Disclaimer: and ever and ever and ever....  
  
  
  
********************Sacrifices: Chapter Seven********************  
  
  
  
Sarah was quite totally, thoroughly, lost- a fact that she would   
refuse to admit to any but herself. She had been walking for what   
seemed like hours. She was hot, tired, dirty- even in Jareth's   
tailored gown- and was quite conceivably the most furious she had EVER   
been in her entire life. She fumed as she paced gardens that seemed   
to lie at the heart of Jareth's maze like castle.  
  
Sarah turned a hedge corner and cursed roundly. "Even his bloody   
castle is a labyrinth!" Oh, she could end this farce. Sarah knew,   
all she would have to do is call his accursed name, whisper 'Jareth'   
for the traitorous breeze to take to his eager ears, and he would be   
by her side, mocking, in a single breath.  
  
But then he would gain the upper hand and damn it... Sarah wanted to   
be in charge of one damn encounter, just once.  
  
Jareth had seen her as many things... righteous, indignant,   
triumphant, and lately humble. He had never seen her angry. He had   
never seen her rage. There was a first for everything. God, how dare   
he?! She had promised him her future, not forever. What use had a   
thirty-five year old almost mother and fiancé for immortality? If she   
met him now there would be no restraint, no meekness. Jareth would   
meet a Sarah unchained, unhindered by politeness or fear.   
  
Then... There was a sense of wind, the smell of magic, a ripple in   
the air behind her. Sarah whirled, expecting the King of the Goblins,   
and felt her jaw drop.   
  
The being before her was like nothing Sarah had ever seen before, and   
for a human Sarah had seen a LOT. It was, a woman... A tall woman,   
taller than Sarah, taller than Jareth would be even. She was slim   
with disproportionately long limbs that still seemed to fit her. Her   
skin was gleaming, smooth, iridescent white. She was clothed in a   
fanciful rove that hung half hazardly in vibrant, clingy, layers and   
for some reason the lion like tail Sarah could see flickering absently   
behind was less disconcerting than her face.  
  
The creature's face was angular with a strong jaw, long features, and   
widely set, oval eyes of reflective obsidian. It was the utter lack   
of pupils that unnerved Sarah the most. As the being glided forward   
her ivory, curling hair slid away to reveal a black star burst that   
seemed to blaze from the middle of her wide brow. A faint,   
condescending smile curved full, pale lips.  
  
"So," the being said as blunted fingers touched Sarah's cheek   
inquisitively. Sarah's anger melted away with the touch and, had she   
any power to, she would have fled, would have even whispered HIS   
name... But she was rooted, against her will, to the spot. "So   
you're the one Jareth," and Jareth was a blemish, a mar of displeasure   
on the creature's smooth face, "used such considerable power to bring,   
and to conceal from me. I wonder why?  
  
"I sense curiosity in you, and dreams... you're a dreamer... And   
something else. Something's missing in you mortal... Wait, that's   
it." Sarah flinched as if struck as the being smiled, savoring her   
unintended but eventual victory.   
  
"I always knew Jareth was a fool, but to make a human woman, a woman-   
not even a child!- immortal... The Court will have a field day with   
this. Immortality and..." The being drew back in surprise.   
  
"You have tread the rich earth of Underground before. You smell of a   
bog and of exploding crystals, shards of vanished dreams." The   
fingers left Sarah's cheek, fell, and the being's transfixing spell   
was broken. Sarah stumbled hurriedly backward.   
  
The being advanced.  
  
"You are the one, Her, the girl that Jareth, that the Underground,   
shall never forget because you beat him, the best, though hardly the   
brightest, of us all. You are Sarah Williams..."  
  
"And she is mine." Sarah jumped as the voice, the cold, stern,   
unforgiving voice spoke from directly behind her. She risked a looked   
back. Jareth was standing several paces behind her, arms folded   
across his broad chest, face a mask of imperious, imperial, anger.   
  
"Your claim is presumptuous Jareth," the creature said, unconcerned by   
the Goblin King's sudden appearance. Jareth's rage was a palpable   
thing that radiated off of him in waves.  
  
"Truly Evirey? Am I presumptuous? In my on realm, in my own castle,   
am I presumptuous to claim something as mine?" The being, Evirey,   
snorted.  
  
"You claim a woman Jareth, not even a child. An immortal woman. This   
is a matter to be decided by the Sidhe Court." It was Jareth's turn   
to snort.  
  
"Is it? Sarah..." Her name was a command, a command she had no wish   
to disobey. Jareth was, to an extent, a known. He was the Goblin   
King. He was the creator, the ruler of the Labyrinth. He was her   
childhood dream. He was her adult nightmare. She had challenged him   
once, long ago, and had won. She had given her loyalty, herself, to   
him in exchange for the future of the only child she had ever loved.  
  
Sarah turned and met his piercing blue and green gaze with her own   
grave one. "Sarah, tell her who I am to you." There were a hundred   
answers Sarah could have given but only one fit. Only one was the   
absolute truth, whether she hated it or not. Sarah turned back to the   
being, bowed deeply on instinct, rose, met obsidian eyes, and softly,   
yet firmly, replied.  
  
"Jareth..." Sarah swallowed, "Jareth is my King."  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Jareth sneered in triumph... Triumph over Evirey and, triumph in that   
Sarah had named him her King. Not that it should be any other way and   
yet, with Sarah one never entirely knew.  
  
"We shall see," Evirey spat so vehemently that Sarah drew back another   
pace until her hair, long locks of sable, were close enough to reach   
towards Jareth. The Queen of the Unicorns promptly disappeared.   
  
And just as promptly Jareth found a hand sailing towards his face.   
Reflexes centuries gained saved him the humility of being slapped by  
a human; his surprise was absolute.   
  
Jareth held Sarah's wrist in a grip of steel as he stared,   
dumbfounded, at the screaming woman. "Damn it let me go you   
bastard!" Sarah cried as she tried, unsuccessfully, to wrench herself   
away. Jareth's confusion was gone in an instant and was replaced by   
amusement and, embers of a quickly called anger.   
  
"The meaning of this attack is what exactly?" Jareth asked, voice silk   
that hid daggers. Sarah hissed.  
  
"Don't play with me Jareth- you know perfectly well why I'm mad."   
Jareth's jaw clenched. Insufferable girl. He leaned closer, too   
close- he could tell by the way she tried, unconsciously, to pull   
away. Leaned close enough that he could see the blue sparks in   
Sarah's dark gaze. Close enough that Sarah could see the pale fire in   
his own.   
  
"Am I a mind reader Sarah?" The question was delicately poised and   
required a meek reply to avoid the promise of danger in the Goblin   
King's face. Sarah surprised him once again. She was not cowed, did   
not even fear what she saw in him... and Jareth had never seen Sarah   
do that. Even twenty years ago, as a child, she had defied him to   
cover the fear that made her tremble whenever he drew near.  
  
"Does the word immortality mean anything to you?" she asked, her own   
voice velvet and steel. Jareth didn't flinch but it was a close   
thing.  
  
Damn Evirey.  
  
"Is it true Jareth? Did you, dared you?" He dropped her wrist and   
stepped back to better study the woman before him. She did not waver   
under his furious regard. Indeed, Sarah matched it.  
  
"Jareth again? My we walk on dangerous ground." Sarah flushed but   
said nothing. She raised her chin in defiance, in answer, and that   
for Jareth was enough. "I do not answer to my subjects Sarah. What   
King does?" Sarah swallowed and looked away as he took two quick   
strides closer.   
  
"If I infuriate you so, if you so disapprove of my ruling you," and   
with this one gloved finger reached up and traced a trail from the   
corner of one eye to her lips, "why did you name me your King? And   
don't say because of the child you traded your life for. Don't lie to   
me like that. You did not think once of the girl when you answered   
Evirey. You did not speak as a mother then. You do not speak as a   
mother now." It was Sarah's turn to step back and as she did Jareth   
let his hand fall, mirroring Evirey's movement. Sarah licked her   
lips, looked away for a long moment, and looked back, met Jareth's   
gaze wholly, in an intimate, open way that not even Drevlyn would   
quite dare, as she replied, words biting, harsh, painful.  
  
"Because 'King' Jareth, if I must live in a hell for eternity it will   
be a hell of my own choosing." 


	9. Chapter Eight: A Little Chat

AN: See! I wrote!! LOL... This chapter did not want to come out   
and frankly... I'm not sure if I'm happy with it but, its here and   
I can go on from here so *rasberry*. It is longer than I thought it   
would be, and different. Stupid characters wouldn't shut up. =)   
Neway, thank you guys so much for reviewing (50 wohoo!). Keep it up!   
I write quicker with encouragement... *hint hint*  
  
Standard disclaimers: and ever and ever and ever and ever...  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Chapter Eight~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
"You'll ruin him yet little human." Sarah quickly wiped tears from   
red cheeks and looked up in surprise, and some fear. The odd being   
before her bowed slightly. She turned her head away and rested one   
cheek on her knees, which were drawn up under her chin as she sat on a   
small-receded alcove somewhere in Jareth's castle. She felt like a   
child and she didn't like it. She hadn't been a child in a long   
time.   
  
Drevlyn's slitted gaze narrowed and he sighed. "What has Jareth   
done..." Sarah looked up that and Drevlyn was surprised to find such   
depth in a human's eyes. There was more to this girl, this woman,   
that one would think.  
  
"Who are you?" she asked, nay demanded, in a tone that made even   
Princes want to respond. Drevlyn bowed again, this time with a great   
flourish, humoring the belligerence that came so obviously with   
stress, and weariness, and perhaps even fear.   
  
"I am Drevlyn my Lady, Prince of the Dragons." He expected surprise,   
perhaps an exclamation of 'Dragons?! Truly?' but he was disappointed.   
The girl raised full brows and snorted.  
  
"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my..." she murmured under her breath.   
She raised her eyes to meet his again, suddenly fearless. Drevlyn was   
impressed, even more so when she questioned him again. "Who is   
Evirey?" Drevlyn sighed and leaned against a pillar a few steps from   
the human, unconsciously copying Jareth's insolent slouch.  
  
"Queen of the Unicorns..." Sarah laughed and it was a bitter sound.  
  
"Dragons and unicorns and goblins, oh my... Nothing is ever what it   
seems here, is it? In all this land the only thing constant is   
illusions. Illusions of dreams come true, illusions of death. I came   
to this place at peace, or at least accepting, of the thought that I   
would die here." Drevlyn swallowed at the sudden silence.  
  
"So, you found out about the fact that Jareth made you immortal?" The   
woman laid her head back on her knees.  
  
"Yeah. Bastard." Drevlyn stifled a laugh.  
  
"You are not what I expected human." Sarah looked up sharply.  
  
"You expected me?" Dragon skin didn't flush, not easily, but   
Drevlyn's blue darkened slightly in response to the woman's quick   
mind. He swallowed.  
  
"No Lady... not exactly. I, I knew of Jareth's deal with you and he   
informed me when he went to collect what was owed him. You arrival   
was as much a surprise to me as I'm sure it was to you." Sarah's keen   
gaze studied him for a moment and she stiffened, jaw squared as she   
spoke again.  
  
"You and Jareth... King Jareth," she amended and it cost her anger   
born pride much to give him that title, "are close..."  
  
"We're friends Lady," Drevlyn answered solemnly.   
  
"The King of the Goblins has friends?" she quipped, bitterness still   
very apparent. Drevlyn coughed to cover more quite inappropriate   
laughter.   
  
"Truthfully Lady, only among the Dragons, and perhaps his subjects."   
Sarah looked away, face shuttered. "Although not among all of his   
subjects." Sarah said nothing in reply but changed the subject   
instead.  
  
"How... how did Jareth know, when it was time to 'collect' on his   
deal?" The question was innocently asked but Drevlyn sensed,   
instinctively, that many things hinged upon his answer. Damn it.   
Jareth was going to skin him alive, if he was lucky. Spying was one   
thing... interfering crossed the clearly marked boundaries of the King   
of the Goblin's very personal business.  
  
Never mind that the future of his people depended on Jareth's ability   
to protect Drevlyn's 'treasure'. Never mind that Jareth was in,   
everything but relation, his brother. Jareth was a smart, cunning,   
dangerous man but he could be the biggest fool about some things.   
Foolish and prideful. Foolish enough to love a child and nurture that   
love for two decades. Foolish enough to deal with the mortal he   
should have, by every right, scorned. Foolish enough to bring that   
child, a woman grown, to a place that she had already bested.   
  
Prideful in that he never saw his defeat coming, at the hands of the   
said child. Prideful enough not to admit his continuing love.   
Prideful enough to believe that he could face down the Sidhe Court   
unscathed. Prideful enough to bind the only creature he had never   
been able to understand to him for all time.   
  
Drevlyn cursed, more vividly, under his steaming breath before   
attempting to answer the human's archly asked question.  
  
"He... Jareth holds the reins to great power, more than most Sidhe,   
more than all the High Sidhe in fact. You injured his pride the day   
you defeated him. Jareth wanted to make sure it wasn't a total loss.   
  
"He put spells in place that 'checked in' on you and yours. He came   
to claim his property the moment it was his to claim. Jareth is after   
all a man of his word."  
  
"So if I had given birth he would have been there to cut the umbilical   
cord and take my child even as I recovered from the last   
contraction?" There was cold anger behind the question but it was   
anger born from her situation, not from the answer Drevlyn had given.   
And his words had been the truth, simply not all of it.  
  
Jareth had placed spells on the once mortal Sarah Williams. He had   
put spells on her, but that didn't mean he hadn't watched her as   
well. Jareth did not love as others did. There was a fierce,   
possessive, obsessive quality that made love, of all the Goblin King's   
emotions, the most volatile, the most intense. Drevlyn gathered his   
thoughts and made an effort to answer the human.  
  
"Perhaps... He can be a cruel man but then, so can I... So can you   
human. There's cruelty in even the most innocent of things. Some   
have said that children are the most cruel of all." Sarah flinched.   
Silence stretched once again between them before Sarah broke it by   
quickly dancing back to a before mentioned but painfully skirted   
subject.  
  
"Aye Drevlyn, Prince of the Dragons, Jareth... King Jareth's   
friend... He can be cruel. Cruel enough to expand my time here from   
perhaps forty years to eternity. Tell me, does he truly seek   
vengeance from his hurt pride that much? If... If immortality was a   
punishment for only me then, I would still rage, but I would   
understand his actions better.   
  
"As it is now... I will match every breath he takes for millennia. I   
know the King of the Goblins takes pleasure from mocking my pain but   
wouldn't even that doubtful amusement dull after a few centuries? I'm   
just a woman, just a human. Why the fascination? Why bother?  
  
"I won by luck twenty years ago, nothing more. I'm not anything   
special now, if I ever was. I'm not the little fool who wished her   
brother away. I'm not the child who bantered and bartered with lives   
on the line. I... I'm a simple woman. I don't dream of princes and   
happily ever afters, not anymore. I dream of a quiet wedding and   
joining the PTA." Sarah stilled and spoke again, voice softer, more   
pain filled than it was before.  
  
"I... I dreamed of those things. They're beyond me now."  
  
"And you blame him?" Drevlyn asked, tone just as soft. Sarah met his   
gaze quickly, her jaw tightening in response as his slitted gaze   
narrowed.  
  
"No," she said finally, quietly. "I do not blame Jareth... damn, King   
Jareth for the decisions I made. I... I spoke the words I did. I   
chose the paths I've tread. I have no one to blame for the fact that   
I'm here, for the fact that I ever was, but myself.   
  
"I just... Why immortality?" Drevlyn swallowed, paused, and- knowing   
it spelled his own doom- told her the truth.  
  
"Because Jareth had no other choice. When he brought you here he used   
much, most of his power, to break the ties you had formed with   
Aboveground over the last thirty-five years. I don't think any other   
Sidhe could have pulled it off. Could have brought a woman, even   
willingly, to Underground without thoroughly draining, even   
endangering, themselves.   
  
"Jareth brought you back human, erased all memory of you in Above, and   
tried to shield you from Evirey's prying eyes. That took a lot of   
power. More than even the considerable reservoir of the Goblin   
King's. The void between our worlds demanded power for your passage   
so Jareth gave it what he could... He burned away your mortality to   
bring you to the Labyrinth. He fed the void your Death. Your promise   
of Death." It was Sarah's turn to visibly swallow.  
  
"Your immortality was not a punishment... It was a mistake." She   
said nothing for another long minute.  
  
"Why... why did he have to shield me from Evirey?" Drevlyn laughed   
harshly and stretched lazily, relieved at the turn the situation was   
now taking. Politics were always safer ground than love, especially a   
Goblin King's love.  
  
"Because little human... The Queen of the Unicorns loves all things   
mortal. Loves humanity, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies. She   
has a court of humans living in her realm that she has kidnapped over the   
years as children. And she detests Jareth with a passion I've rarely   
seen matched. He is not always the most tactful person and several   
comments have ensured that a certain Unicorn Queen would be only too   
happy to provide his demise.   
  
"Now imagine what kind of prize you'd be... an immortal human who had   
bested Jareth before and who Jareth still claimed as his."   
  
"I am not a thing to be fought over by wolves." Drevlyn, who had been   
studying the ceiling, looked sharply at the woman. There had been no   
evident anger in that statement but its coolness, its absolute   
firmness told him something. He had struck a nerve. Sarah's face was   
shuttered, imperial, and every inch as regal as Jareth's could be.   
Drevlyn was, once again, impressed.   
  
Immortal, bound to a man that she feared and was drawn to, tired,   
angry, spent after facing that man- that Goblin King- and one of his   
dearest enemies she still managed as she sat, dirty, grubby, perhaps   
even tear stained in a ripped gown, to act like a Queen. Jareth   
really did have good taste.  
  
"Wolves?" he asked faintly. Sarah flushed but did not retract her   
words. Drevlyn walked forward and stopped in front of the small   
recess Sarah was perched in. He crouched gracefully until he was   
looking up in the human's dark gaze.   
  
"Answer me this human... Jareth asked you why you named him your   
King. I ask the same and don't, don't give me that heaven be damned   
answer of yours." Sarah stared at him and Drevlyn sucked warm breath   
through fanged teeth. The woman was good. Just as good at staring   
him down as Jareth, perhaps even better... something Drevlyn would   
have sworn was impossible before today. She bit one full lip.  
  
"I... Jareth... Damn," she swore. "I don't know. I am a woman of my   
word Prince Drevlyn. I was standing there; confronted by this   
creature I didn't know offering things I don't think she quite dared   
to vocalize here, in the Labyrinth. And then there was Jareth." She   
bowed her head a moment. "King Jareth," she granted stiffly.   
  
"I... I have defied him before Prince Drevlyn. And he was right... in   
that moment when he demanded that I tell the Queen of the Unicorns who   
he was to me I wasn't thinking of Melanie. I wasn't afraid of saying   
the wrong thing and having the Goblin King snatch away Mel.  
  
"I was standing there and... it was the truth. The simple truth   
Drevlyn. It wasn't some epiphany. It wasn't some revelation. It was   
the truth. Jareth can be a arrogant bastard and sometimes... Sometimes   
I can almost hate him. Sometimes...  
  
"But..." Sarah trailed helplessly away. "He's the Goblin King. I   
wished myself away once; I gave myself away a second time. I... It   
was the truth. I can't explain it and damn it I couldn't lie, not   
then, not to him, not when he's never lied to me. He may not have   
always been honest but he's never lied.   
  
"So I said the words, I voiced the truth." She looked at Drevlyn more   
closely. "Why? Why is what I did so important?" Drevlyn rose from   
his crouch.   
  
"Because Lady... Jareth is the most powerful being Underground in   
terms of magic, but not politically. We are all ruled, to an extent,   
by the Sidhe Court. Jareth less than most but still... to some things   
he must bow in favor of their will. It is tradition that every   
mortal, every human, brought to this realm must be presented to the   
Court. Jareth rather blatantly ignores that tradition. He usually   
turns his newest subjects into goblins. And his disrespect is   
tolerated with some things because, to check his power would require   
more magic and blood than it would be worth, especially for mere   
tradition's sake.   
  
"This situation is rather different. By your age and immortality you   
are a rarity, a first. You are almost one of us," and by 'us' Sarah   
knew Drevlyn meant High Sidhe, "yet you are not of our world, even if   
you belong to it now.  
  
"Jareth wished to hide you from the Court, from Evirey who often   
enough keeps an eye on Jareth *for* the Court. Now that she knows about   
you she will call a Judgment Session. They... I think they are like   
your mortal trials. Jareth will have to defend and explain his   
actions and will formally make his claim on you.  
  
"It will be contested. For curiosity's sake many would have you as a   
subject. For spite, for Jareth's arrogance is not just insulting to   
you little human. All High Sidhe have pride and Jareth wounds many on   
a regular occasion."  
  
"And then?" Sarah demanded. Drevlyn snorted and smoke escaped from   
his nostrils.  
  
"And then they will vote. Jareth will either be punished or acquitted  
and you... You will be given to the claimant whose argument is   
strongest." He could practically see the human bristle.  
  
"That's barbaric," she spat. "Do I have NO say in ANY of this   
Judgment Session?" Drevlyn laughed and it was, for the first time, a   
light sound.  
  
"Of course child. Those of the Underground do consider themselves   
more civilized than Above. You named Jareth your King once and   
claimed it as truth. I'd suggest that you do so again, with all the   
sincerity that you can manage, or you may find yourself with a new   
ruler." Sarah glared.  
  
"If I am to be ruled it will be by a King that I decree. I am NOT a   
toy. I am NOT a curiosity. I will NOT be bartered or given. I am   
NOT some kind of slave. And you had better tell your 'friend' that he   
had better be damned sincere and prepared himself."  
  
"Why don't you tell him yourself?" Sarah and Drevlyn both whirled and   
blanched to find Jareth on the other side of the corridor, arms   
crossed, foot tapping, face unmistakably furious. With who Drevlyn   
wasn't sure. Jareth held out one black gloved hand.  
  
"Sarah, come." Drevlyn glanced at the woman. She was made of sterner   
stuff than Drevlyn was. She stared at Jareth, mouth pursed. "Sarah,   
that was a command." She drew herself up straighter but made no move   
to stand. Drevlyn edged away. Jareth fumed for a moment before   
growling.   
  
"Please Sarah. Just come. We must speak." Sarah studied the irate   
Goblin King for another long moment before rising fluidly and walking   
forward to take his hand, face a mask. Jareth glared at his   
'brother'.   
  
"You and will have a talk later as well, about spying and about   
interfering." Drevlyn winced at the blatant fury in that parting shot   
as Jareth and Sarah disappeared. He had hoped Jareth hadn't caught on   
to the fact that he had watched the whole scene with Evirey.   
  
Damn, damn, damn. Skinned alive indeed. 


	10. Chapter Nine: Rattled

AN: Note to the wise, ie not me, spell check before you spend ten minutes  
wrapping the chapter so you don't have to go back and change everything   
by hand. =)  
  
A huge thanks to everyone who has reviewed!! And to all those authors   
out there- hay I read fanfiction too! Get off your rears and write! ;)   
I know... I know... I shouldn't get impatient but I want new chapters   
too!! Especially new chapters that I don't have to pluck from my own   
overworked brain... =-P  
  
Disclaimers: and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...  
  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Chapter 9~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
  
Jareth pressed the heel of his hand against the bridge of his nose,   
trying to ward off the terrific headache blooming between mismatched   
eyes. Sarah watched him as he paced from her precarious, rather   
nervous perch on the edge of his bed. Yes, his bed. The throne room   
was full of goblins and everywhere else wasn't shielded well enough to   
block prying eyes, slitted prying eyes.  
  
Not that Jareth particularly blamed Drevlyn. Jareth guarded the   
Dragon Prince's, and his race's future. When he was in a better   
temper he wouldn't have particularly blamed Drevlyn. Right this   
instant roasted, toasted, and burnt to a crisp were the only words   
that came to mind. Interfering busybody. And he wasn't the only   
one.   
  
Evirey needed to be taken down a few notches. She may be the Queen   
of Intrigue and Politics but she was a very foolish woman. No one   
entered the heart of his realm and attempted to take what was his. No   
one. Especially not some damned insufferable Unicorn.   
  
Snapping eyes flickered to Sarah. Jareth sighed internally. The   
child, girl, woman, very much a woman, looked about as bad as Jareth   
felt. She had barely slept in two days, eaten less, and been through   
more emotional turmoil than the King of the Goblins cared to think   
about.   
  
He himself was not, refused to let himself be, an easy person to deal   
with. Especially when it came down to a mortal, a human immortal his   
mind added with a cynical little laugh, who had beaten his Labyrinth.   
Who had defeated him. Who had refused her dreams and all that Jareth   
could offer.   
  
Her child for her life had been their deal and now... Now it was her   
life for her child's future. Throw immortality, a devious Unicorn   
Queen, and a disapproving Dragon Prince in the mix and Jareth was   
pleased that Sarah Williams wasn't having a nervous breakdown. She   
looked pissed but then, she wasn't trying to slap him so he wasn't   
going to complain.   
  
He paused his nervous dance around the room in front of her and   
frowned. "We have to talk." Sarah lifted her chin from her knees and   
stared at him. There was fear in that intent gaze but it was   
overshadowed by stubborness, and a strength that was new in her.   
Womanhood had brought more to Sarah than a mature body.  
  
"Where are we?" Jareth glared and his newest subject glared back,   
clearly uncomfortable in the silk oppulence that the King of the   
Goblins chose for his personal quarters. The atmosphere was rich,   
seductive, intimate... a reflection of himself. The architecture,   
like the rest of the castle, leaned towards gothic with vaulted,   
arched ceilings and chambers of different floor levels.   
  
Velvet drapes covered the numerous windows and silk hung from the   
ceiling like waves, or clouds. Cushions, pillows, cashmere throws   
covered bare ledges and created seats for rarely had visitors.   
Crystals hung as chandeliers and formed fantastic sculptures that   
stood throughout his rooms. His bed was a massive four post thing,   
made of cherry wood and covered again with silk sheets. All of the   
fabric was varying shades of darkness... blacks, indigos, maroons,   
midnight blues and the room was lit by old fashion oil lamps and   
hundreds of wavering candles.  
  
"We are in my quarters." At Sarah's drawn brows Jareth snorted again,   
this time audibly. "Really Sarah, you think so little of me? I   
wished to speak away from the prying eyes of my enemies, and my   
friends, and I did not think you would be much more comfortable in the   
Throne Room, along with the three dozen goblins that are currently   
occupying it."  
  
"The Non Sidhe..." she said softly. Jareth's body tensed as he   
continued his prowl, sure predatory steps drawing him closer to her.   
He stopped in front of her and titled his head to one side, appraising   
eyes darkening with thought. Brown suede gloved fingers brushed one   
pale cheek absently.   
  
"My we have been busy, haven't we?" Sarah pulled away and scooted   
back on the bed. Jareth stared down at her in absent amusement. "And   
where did you learn of the Non Sidhe Sarah? Of the Low, Middle, and   
High for I assume you have knowledge of them as well..." She said   
nothing. Jareth tsked gently as another step took him to the bed   
where he sat gracefully, one leg folded over his other.  
  
"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah..." he chided with her name. She rolled off the   
bed in a flash and stood several wary steps away, arms crossed across   
her breast in an unconscious imitation of him, though her arms acted   
like a shield, not like an outward show of strength and solidarity.   
She was rattled.   
  
"I'm not a child Jareth. Don't treat me like one." He rose and was at   
her side, taller, more intimidating than should have been possible.   
His fingers, when he caressed her cheek again, were still careful,   
soothing even.  
  
"I've never believed you to be a child Sarah. Childish perhaps, but   
never a child." He ignored the casual use of his name this once. The   
last thing he wanted to remind Sarah of was her pride. She shivered   
under his touch, at the whispered words, and, in all things concerning   
the Goblin King, refused it. She stepped away with a swallow. Jareth   
made a move to follow her but she stopped him with her outstretched   
hand. They both stared at it, at the angry scar that was a very real   
reminder of a life Sarah had left behind. Jareth hissed and the   
frustration, the pain, the longing behind the noise startled Sarah,   
frightened her more than anything she had experienced here yet.  
  
Jareth was danger and allure. It was part of who, what he was. No   
woman could face him, could be in his presence, without being pulled   
toward him. She had not recognized that fact twenty years ago, as   
they played their thirteen hour game of villain and heroine. She   
recognized it now.   
  
It changed nothing.  
  
The rules had changed though, Sarah felt, knew that. For one moment   
she wished, desperately, for the black and white of the Labyrinth of   
old. That was one thing she had learned, one lesson she had never   
been able to take back- the older you got the more the world was one   
big gray. And gray with a Goblin King was a very dangerous thing.   
His simmering gaze narrowed.  
  
"King Jareth," he snapped suddenly. Sarah flushed. Damn man. No   
one, no one flustered her this easily.   
  
"You wished to speak?" Sarah asked, ignoring the reprimand, or the   
sudden fury in the Goblin King's frigid gaze. He surveyed her with   
cold disdain. Sarah returned the regard cooly, though without the   
pure intensity that Jareth managed as she brought her stray hand,   
clenched, to her side.  
  
"This first Sarah..." God, she hated it when he said her name. It   
was always just a little too suggestive, always lingered over, as if   
it was a thing to be savored, tasted. No one's name should be so   
enjoyed, so full. 'Human, child, woman', anything would be preferable   
to that slow velvety voice whispering, taunting, sliding through the   
syllables of her name. It had been daringly thrilling at fifteen. It   
was reality enough now to make her wince at its usage. And damn him   
again, he knew it, knew it and reveled in it.  
  
"How did you learn of our world?" Sarah flinched at the 'our' as   
Jareth continued. "How did you learn of your immortality for that   
matter? Evirey? I didn't think she had you to herself for that   
long..." There was jealously that flared there, at the last.  
  
"No," Sarah replied, trying to hold back irrational, hysterical   
laughter. "Not Evirey..."  
  
"Sarah..." an undercurrent of menace in his harsh tone. Sarah   
snorted as she tried, unsuccessfully, not to negate her fears,   
insecurities, and overwhelming situation by giggling. Devon would   
have recognized her mood and back slowly, but surely away.   
  
One night out, when the sitter had called them home early because she   
had gotten food poisoning, after Devon had locked his keys in the car,   
and Sarah had twisted her ankle on a patch on ice... They had come   
home to a house flooded by an over flown toilet, one puking sitter and   
a amused, though confused Melanie and had spent two hours arguing with   
a plumber with a reading level of a ten year old... Sarah had laughed   
the entire night, giggled, cried, had been insufferable as they paid   
an inordinate amount for the plumber, the baby sitter, and had visited   
the emergency room for her ankle.  
  
Sarah started laughing.   
  
The Goblin King couldn't have been more surprised if she'd tried to   
slap him again.  
  
"Sarah," he intoned, fury at her disrespect lacing her still savored   
name with exasperation. He stared at her as she leaned over and   
laughed, hard, loud, unrestrained, undismayed by the looming Goblin   
King.  
  
"Sarah!" he snapped and her name was once again a command. A command   
that she utterly ignored.   
  
"You..." she spluttered helplessly, "You're jealous of... of..."   
Jareth growled and with one swift motion hauled the giggling woman   
upright. She stared at him, openly, met his piercing, terrifying   
glare with her own dancing eyes and continued swiftly, breathlessly,   
"You're jealous of your own servant Jareth. It was Hellin who told me   
of the Non Sidhe, the Low, Middle and High. It was Hellin who told   
me I was immortal..." Jareth's jaw snapped shut abruptly, a   
chilliness descending his features with a suddenness that spoke of   
absolute control. Sarah admired that control, admired it and knew she  
could never achieve it herself.   
  
He released her slowly, his hands loosening from their hold on her   
arms. He had been gripping her so tight she had little doubt that   
there'd be bruises. "That hurt," she said softly, eyes still staring   
into his. He didn't apologize. He didn't acknowledge that she had   
said anything else at all.  
  
"I am not jealous."   
  
She spoke before she thought, said the word carelessly, and regretted   
it the instant it left her lips.  
  
"Liar."   
  
There were too many meanings layered in that word. Too many contexts,   
too much history, both good and bad, tied like a kite tail to that one   
simple word. Jareth whitened instantly, paled as if all blood had   
fled, leaving only cold marble behind.  
  
"I do not lie Sarah..." He didn't finish the thought, not out loud,   
but she could read it in his eyes, in the pale, flushed fires that   
resided there. In the hell she had seen behind his pupils that night   
twenty not so long years ago.   
  
She felt young in those eyes, young, untried, untested, weaker than   
she liked to believe. So young... And Melanie and Devon seemed so   
very far away.   
  
'...not to you...' She could almost hear the words said, almost see   
them leaving his twisting, beautiful mouth. Yes beautiful... She had   
refused Jareth but she had never denied his beauty. You do not deny   
that the sea is salty, or that they sky is not blue. You do not deny   
the beauty of the Goblin King when you stand before him, especially   
when you stand before him.  
  
She did not know the rules of the game. She didn't even know what   
game they were playing. If they were playing at all... Sarah   
shivered.  
  
"You are cold," Jareth said suddenly, breaking the terrible, poignant   
awkwardness of the moment. He stepped away and she watched, wide   
eyed.   
  
"We..." Jareth looked away from her, from the immortal human, from his   
immortal human. Looked away and tried, desperately, to gather shreds   
of a dignity that seemed to have melted, unnoticed, away.   
  
"We shall continue this another time. When you have recovered some   
from all the shocks you have had of late." Sarah looked away from the   
Goblin King as well.  
  
"All right Jareth," she replied softly.   
  
"King Jareth," he said instantly, though the anger was a brittle,   
fragile thing.   
  
"King Jareth," she conceded in that same soft voice and this time,   
King was not spat with anger, not forced from bowed pride. Was given   
as a gift, from a woman who understood all too well the need for   
emotional shields. Who understood how important distance was   
sometimes. She was surprised though, as he hastily called a crystal   
and wished her away, back to her room with a shattered vanity and cold   
stone floors.   
  
Sarah had never seen Jareth rattled before. 


	11. Chapter Ten: What If?

AN: Well this was going to be a big action chapter but, well, umm...   
That's going to be next chapter. This chapter is a mini cliff hanger   
instead. I know, I'm wonderful aren't I? Neway, a HUGE thanks to   
everyone who has been so kind as to review and, well a dirty look to   
all you out there who haven't. I receive constructive critcism well,   
promise. Already have a few things I want to go back and 'tweak'   
eventually in a couple of chapters. =) I guess that's all for now.   
Write everyone! Write!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Sacrifices: Chapter Ten~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~   
  
  
  
"Call me, when the time comes, please Jareth..." Jareth let the cold   
mask of anger thaw slightly with the sudden fear, the worry that   
creased his almost brother's blue skinned brow. He bowed, stiffly,   
and Drevlyn, Prince of the Dragons, returned the solemn gesture of   
impartiality.  
  
"We...we are not finished with the repercussions of your actions   
Prince Drevlyn. But I am holder of the title and honor of Dragon's   
Trust. Your race is second only to my own people and kingdom. No   
quarrel, however terrific, no deed, no matter how horrific, would   
delay such long awaited news.   
  
"Besides," and Jareth sudden smile, smirk, was mercantile, "as your   
race prospers, so does my tenuous position in the Sidhe Court rise.   
Harsh words shall be exchanged over this evening, but I shall call the   
moment there is any change." Drevlyn rose, unease abated by the   
sureness in the Goblin King's wintry reply.   
  
The Dragon Prince rose, nodded sharply once, and called forth a   
portal. He started to step through it and paused long enough to send   
a parting, parrying blow.  
  
"You have wonderful taste in women, though your fashion sense could be   
improved on. Handle her with more care than your pride tells you to.   
You have my blessing!"   
  
A crystal shattered against the wall where the portal had been a   
moment earlier. The Goblin King cursed his smart mouthed friend and   
paused long enough to study his canary colored ruffled shirt with a   
slight frown of annoyance. Damn, he hated when that dratted Prince   
was right.  
  
***************************************************************  
  
The days spent slowly away. For all she knew Sarah was deserted in   
the Goblin King's Castle, she was always alone. No trace of Hellin,   
of the Non Sidhe goblins, of Jareth, their King... her King.   
  
She wandered the halls of the castle, the winding, twisting   
corridors. The castle itself was a sort of labyrinth, albeit less   
dangerous, or at least the dangers were much clearer. She didn't try   
to pick the locks on locked doors. She didn't touch anything that   
looked odd, or let her aimless steps lead her down darkened   
corridors.   
  
She never ventured into the Goblin City and the Labyrinth, no matter   
how beautiful it looked at sunset and sunrise, held no appeal for   
her. Not unless she was carrying a rather heavy, okay... very heavy   
club. Sarah had found wonders enough within the castle to occupy her   
hours... rooms full of running water, waterfalls, and an amazing show   
of accompanying rainbows- of a thousand paper lanterns that hung so   
low you had to stoop to walk through to the other dimly lit side- of   
walls and floors covered with millions of guttering candles that   
burned bright in the room's darkness... All immaculate, all   
beautiful, all quite unlived in, empty.   
  
She had yet to come across Jareth's quarters again. Something told   
her that those were not to be found without the King of the Goblins   
wishing it so. Sarah felt him sometimes, watching her... nothing that   
intense could be totally invisible and unfelt by her.  
  
He did not try to renew their unfinished conversation. He did not   
hover, he did not haunt. Her meals came to her by, what she assumed   
was magic. She had hesitated the first time a meal had appeared on a   
small table by her bedside, put off especially by a bowl of peaches.   
Jareth had a wicked sense of humor, even as an unseen King.   
  
It had been a test, Sarah had little doubt of that now... Of what she   
had no idea. She didn't know what game they were in, let alone what   
the subtleties of all the politics meant. She had stared at the fruit   
for several minutes before picking up one particularly ripe peach and   
savoring every last bite to the pit.  
  
There hadn't been any dreams... no ballrooms... no Goblin Kings in all   
their finery whirling her off to a place where the slightest tender   
look made her tremble in response. She had been mildly surprised and   
even more mildly, disappointed. Sarah swallowed as fingers   
unconsciously traced the jagged scar on one palm.   
  
If he had been a normal man she would almost think that it was spite,   
or pettiness that kept Jareth from appearing. If he was a normal man she   
would think that he was waiting, perversely, for her to call him   
first. Jareth was anything but a normal man.   
  
He couldn't be that small minded, that... that arrogantly masculine...   
that human. Wasn't, couldn't be... because then that flash of   
jealously which she had attributed as possessiveness could be a   
response of more, well masculine was the word that came to mind,   
feelings instead. Because if Jareth was that human, that mannish then   
the ballroom, the Echer room was something else entirely too, even   
buried twenty years in the past.   
  
Something besides a man with more power then she could possibly dream   
of toying with a girl, a child, barely a woman, even less aware of   
that fact. It became a man with more power then she could have   
possibly dreamed of offering all that he was, all who he would ever   
be, to that said child, girl, that defiant and terribly afraid woman.   
  
'Love me, fear me, let me rule you... and I will be your slave...'   
The half remembered words taunted her for a moment as Sarah was   
trapped in a not so pleasant world of 'what ifs?'. What if there had   
been no Toby to rescue? What if Jareth had brought her to the Labyrinth a   
few years later? What if she had let her dreams come true? What if she   
had accepted the thrilling, dark promise in the Goblin King's tortured   
gaze?  
  
Sarah swallowed. She had almost whispered his name a hundred, a   
thousand times. Almost whispered it again as she stood, outside a   
great oak door in some unknown, unnamed corridor deep in the heart of   
the castle she would call home for eternity. Almost gave into   
temptation.   
  
Would have fifteen years ago. Would have ten... Would have five,   
when thirty hit and she first truly felt like an adult, a dreamer, but   
an adult- with responsibility... with a family. It wasn't Jareth's   
name that broke the silence of the hallway.  
  
"Devon... oh Devon." Sarah leaned against the cold stone walls and   
wrapped her arms around herself, shaking with suppressed tears. God,   
she wasn't even wearing her engagement ring. She had taken it off   
that night, when she had taken a shower. It was still half a size too   
big and Devon hadn't been able to pry it away from her long enough for   
the local jeweler to resize it. And then she had gone to put Melanie   
to bed and Jareth...  
  
Suddenly bitterly angry and lost Sarah let herself slide down the wall   
until she sat, leaning against the wall, head in her hands as hot   
tears splashed onto one of the many more simple gowns that had been   
provided, magically and unseen, each morning she awoke. Bitter   
because she had been taken away without, without something so precious   
and furious, mind numbingly furious with herself for not even   
realizing her lack.   
  
More tears came with that self loathing thought and Sarah sat there a   
long time, wondering who she was and just what she was doing, in this   
world that mocked her pain and only her caused more.  
  
*******************************************************************  
  
Devon sat up late again, the TV on, vaguely worried by how he had been   
acting but still simply, uneloquently, depressed. A TV movie came on   
and he watched, with glassy eyes, but leaned forward suddenly, intent,  
alert, as a woman came... no glided on screen.  
  
She was beautiful in a breath catching sort of way. Not like a super   
model... more like one of the great actresses of the twenties or   
thirties... in a classic kind of way. Her skin was pale and   
contrasted with her long hair, a waterfall of sable, and expressive   
dark eyes. It was her voice though that moved him, drew him, made the   
part of him that ached for no reason feel soothed, whole.   
  
He watched, unable to tear his blue eyes away from the screen. He   
ignored the plot, the commercials, anything and everything but the   
woman.  
  
Devon heard Melanie crying vaguely in the background. She hadn't slept   
for days. He went and retrieved his sobbing unhappy during a quick   
commercial. She abruptly stopped wailing when the movie came back on,   
just as transfixed as her father. The movie lasted two hours. As the   
credits rolled by Devon eagerly, imaptiently, searched for the woman's   
name.  
  
There... Sarah Williams.   
  
It meant nothing to him, but it should. Something in him responded to   
it, hungered for it. Devon whispered the name softly, hoarsely.  
  
"Sarah..." Speaking it, voicing it made it real, made it something   
more tangible then a mere actress in a nondescript TV movie. Melanie   
buried her face in his shirt, clinging to him.   
  
"Sarah Williams..."  
  
********************************************************************  
  
She haunted his dreams that night- when Devon finally got Mel to sleep   
and crawled into bed himself. She haunted his fantasies, and his   
nightmares and when he woke he wept like he hadn't since Melanie's   
mother had died so long ago... Cried- torn apart by the unnamed loss   
that threatened to drown him in grief.  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Sarah looked up as timid steps sounded down the hall, face tear   
streaked, eyes rimmed an ugly red.   
  
"Sarah? Mistress Sarah?" She flinched at Hellin's quavering voice   
and rose shakily. "Mistress? Please... I was sent to get you. Oh   
where are you Mistress?" Sarah paused half a moment, torn between the   
need for companionship and the sudden, more urgent need for solitude.   
  
Solitude won.   
  
Sarah turned to the door beside her, the ornate oaken door that seemed   
very similar to her own. Perhaps... perhaps it was another guest room.   
It didn't matter, not really. She tried the handle- unlocked. Sarah   
slipped, silent as a shadow, inside, closing the heavy door behind her   
with a click.   
  
Sarah stared.   
  
Part of the floor was cut away in a rough two foot wide circle,   
leaving a large 'island' in the center. The cut away part was filled   
with sparkling, though still water, but it was the island that caught   
and held Sarah's attention. She had seen many wonders, and many odd   
things, in her explorations but she had never seen something,   
anything, like this.  
  
The island was like some great bed... a large cushion strewn with pillows   
and blankets of satin and velvet and silk and cashmere. All   
surrounding, cradling, nestling, a giant golden egg. Sarah watched,   
fascinated, as streaks of emerald and jade moved across the surface,   
marbling it. She stepped back quickly as the egg rocked slightly.   
Stepped back and then stepped, unsure, unwillingly, forward, drawn   
like a moth to a flame.   
  
Sarah's slippered feet stopped at the edge of the 'moat', her eyes   
never leaving the immense egg which came up past her waist, or would   
if she was standing beside it, when she was standing beside it.   
  
Sarah swallowed again, with nervousness and a small amount of fear.   
She could see, in the light of the room, a shadow moving inside the   
egg. And then there was a crack along the jewel like surface.   
  
Sarah took one, large, thoughtless step forward, propelled, urged   
by some unseen force, and was standing beside it when a second crack   
appeared.   
  
  
  
  
2AN: Forgot the egg didn't you? Come on, don't lie... you forgot it...   
  
Oh.   
  
Okay.   
  
You guys didn't. ;) *Inane moment brought to you by Kei* 


	12. Chapter Eleven: The Egg

AN: Yes, The Egg... The Egg is revealed in this chapter... not explained   
but revealed. Explanations are for chapter twelve. =) Yes, I'm evil.   
I know this is short but, dunno... seemed like a good definitive place to   
end when I was writing it.   
  
Thanks again, and again, and again to everyone who has been so supportive   
and review like! You guys are so awesome! ;) Also, a really stupid   
random question but... what is a listian? Maybe I should know but I   
really don't. I've heard the term in relation to Laby fanfiction but   
haven't found a definition. Just curious...  
  
Disclaimer: and ever and ever and ever and... are we getting the picture   
yet?... and ever and ever... =)  
  
  
  
*******************Sacrifices: Chapter Eleven***********************  
  
  
Sarah watched, mute, frozen, as the myriad of cracks widened and split   
the egg in pieces. As claws pushed their way through and were   
followed by a golden snout that gleamed in light spilling in from   
small, high windows. A golden reptilian snout with vivid, startling,   
emerald eyes.   
  
The eyes blinked once as the creature stood unsteadily, all four feet   
of it, and shook once, wet leather like wings rattling as bits of   
shell flew off it. Then it focused on Sarah. They stared at each   
other for a long moment, the silent immortal human and the newly   
hatched Dragon Queen. And then magic flared beyond the circle of   
their eyes and Jareth stepped through a portal, Drevlyn a breath   
behind him.   
  
The two females whirled together to face the Goblin King and Dragon   
Prince. Drevlyn's human face registered naked shock along with   
something else... a mixture of pride, longing, fear, and utter relief.   
Jareth's features held only one emotion, naked rage.   
  
Sarah stepped back in the face of his fury, unconsciously putting the   
creature, which could only be described as a Dragon, in between her   
and the wrathful Goblin King. Jareth took one single stride forward   
that carried him to the edge of the 'moat'.   
  
"Sarah," he growled, eyes on her alone. The Dragon hissed in reply   
and stepped forward, drawing its newborn self up to its full four feet   
height, back arched like a cat as its tail snaked back and wrapped   
itself around one of Sarah's ankles. Its front talons touched the   
edge of the other side of the moat. For some reason the feel of the   
tail, the presence of the scaled appendage inspired calm in Sarah, not   
fear.  
  
Drevlyn bowed in the face of the little beast's wrath. Jareth   
glared.  
  
The little Dragon cast its sparking emerald glare first to Drevlyn,   
who it studied fiercely for a second before speaking with a backwards   
glance at Sarah. 'Mine.' All three of them jumped when the voice,   
feminine, clear, authoritive, spoke in their minds. Drevlyn was   
startled enough to raise his downcast head, his dark spikes   
straightening in surprise. The Dragon spoke again as she stepped back   
so that she and Sarah stood side by side, a show of solidarity that   
Sarah didn't quite know what to make of.  
  
'Hers.' The tail wrapped around Sarah's ankle tightened with that   
word and left little doubt to its meaning. Jareth raised wintry brows   
and glanced at his almost brother.   
  
"What is going on Drevlyn?" Drevlyn smiled as he rose and it was a   
bright, jagged thing.   
  
"You are meeting the new Queen of the Dragons Jareth. Be polite."   
The newborn Dragon smiled as well, her little snout curled back to   
reveal two rows of wicked teeth. It hissed warningly and completed   
her first speech as she stared pointedly at Jareth.  
  
'Bad.'   
  
Jareth was, for one of the first times in his life, not amused.   
  
"Drevlyn, what in all hells name is going on here?" The Dragon Queen   
snorted and smoke curled from curved nostrils. The smoke was silver.  
  
'I am Queen. Speak to me.' Jareth whirled on the small Dragon before   
spitting a reply.  
  
"Fine Your Majesty," and the Dragon's title was a snarl, "what is   
going on here? I demand answers and I demand that you release my   
subject!" Sarah swallowed and attempted to back up another step, not   
frightened but terribly unsure, confused. She may be a part of this   
world but she knew so little about it in truth. Only what Hellin and   
Drevlyn had told her... Only what Jareth had let slip. She knew   
nothing of Dragons and Dragon Queens. Of being part of 'Mine' or   
'Hers'.   
  
The Dragon Queen's tail held her fast. A piercing emerald gaze, too   
astute for a newborn, too astute to be easily met, met hers for   
another soul gazing moment and Sarah could practically feel the magic   
in the air. She wasn't the only one.  
  
"Dragon Queen release her!" Jareth moved to cross the moat, hands   
still clenched, and Sarah realized that, even if she wasn't truly   
afraid, that Jareth, King of the Goblins was. Afraid of being usurped   
in his own castle, afraid of loosing something to this newly hatched   
Dragon, something precious, something that was his, as fiercely his as   
his Labyrinth, people, and kingdom, her.  
  
The moment his foot left solid ground and went to stretch across the   
'moat' the latent magic in the air flared, sparked fiery gold, and   
revealed a transparent dome that covered the 'island' of cushions and   
egg fragments, neatly sealing Sarah and the Dragon Queen inside.   
  
The little Dragon looked smug and incredibly pleased with herself.   
Jareth's brows raised a little higher and he rocked back on his heels,   
face a study of sudden mildness.  
  
"So little Dragon Queen, you want to play hardball?" This time Sarah   
knew she wasn't imagining the magical build up in the air.  
  
"Jareth no!" Drevlyn called, suddenly frantic, as the Dragon Queen's   
jaded eyes widened and she backed up, trying to pull Sarah along with   
her.   
  
Jareth was... was terrifying, and magnificent. His magic was all the   
colors of the rainbow and some, some that words couldn't describe. It   
gathered around him, like a turbulent storm, and was focused in the   
single crystal he held in outstretched hands. Hair, always wild,   
stood on end, and Sarah realized, with another swallow, that he was   
actually about to try to attack the Queen of the Dragons. And that   
the Queen of the Dragons was less than sure about the outcome of that   
attack. And that Sarah didn't want to be the reason for blood shed or   
violence between the two monarchs as Drevlyn's honest words haunted   
her...  
  
  
  
'The King of the Goblins has friends?' Sarah quipped, bitterness still   
very apparent. Drevlyn coughed to cover more quite inappropriate   
laughter.   
'Truthfully Lady, only among the Dragons, and perhaps his subjects.'  
  
  
  
Magic condensed and exploded outward the moment Sarah managed to break   
free from the little Dragon's grip. She hit the barrier the exact   
second Jareth's angry magical attack crashed into it.   
  
Sarah dimly heard screaming... her own, the squeal of a frantic Dragon   
Queen, Drevlyn's hoarse shout for reason, and, as her vision failed   
her, as pain laced her wounded body and it crumpled to the floor, saw   
the anguished face of the Goblin King fill her world.  
  
A Goblin King who wept at the destructive force of his anger and who   
cradled her in arms too tender to belong to Her King. Sarah's scarred   
hand reached upwards to touch one wet cheek in confusion.  
  
"Jareth?" she whispered before words failed her. Darkness claimed her   
then, in the confusion born of anger and the birth of a stubborn   
Dragon Queen, in the warm strong arms of the Goblin King who cried at   
his own power.  
  
Confusion bled away as Sarah slept, as she dreamt, of a world   
Aboveground, Underground, and of all the sacrifices she had ever made   
in her too short life. Of a fiance lost, a child saved, and of a jealous   
Goblin King. 


	13. Chapter Twelve: Explanations

AN: *blinks* Wow, if I had known almost killing off one of the main   
characters would get that kind of response I would have done it about   
five chapters ago... LOL, kidding. I was totally blow away by all the   
reviews, replies, etc... You guys keep me writing... well I'd write   
anyway but you guys keep me writing a lot faster! =) (Wohoo I broke 100!)  
  
Anyway, some explanation here in this chapter for what's been going on.   
I think I took care of everything I meant to, course I can't reveal   
everything, mainly because I haven't figured everything out for myself   
yet.   
  
And yes, I've read Anne McCaffrey, Dragonriders was my first fantasy   
novel ever when I was a kid. My concepts are a little different, so   
no this isn't a Pern crossover by any means (god help me if it was   
cause her lawyers are scary) but the whole dragon thing is similar.   
And I'm also a big fan of Terry Pratchett, especially Death. Death   
and the Luggage. Sapient pearwood just can't get any cooler than   
that. ;) *glances up* Dang I was chatty. Enjoy guys!  
  
Disclaimer: and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever...   
  
  
  
*******************Sacrifices: Chapter Twelve**************  
  
  
"Damn it you almost killed her!" Drevlyn raised dark brows in an   
exxagerated expression of disbelief.  
  
"I?! I almost killed her? Calm down Jareth, she's immortal." Jareth   
growled as one hand gently smoothed away strands of errant hair. His   
trembling fingers strayed for a moment, to brush across pale ivory   
skin, to outline the shape of soft parted lips. He turned to look at   
his almost brother and the Dragon Prince failed the test in his grave,   
cold, passionate eyes.   
  
There was too much pain there, too much love to be looked upon by any   
but the receiver. And the receiver was lying unconscious in Jareth's   
bed. Jareth spoke and Drevlyn couldn't help but listen, listen and   
wonder if one day he would ever, could ever feel such passion, such   
sincere tenderness, such warmth for any one creature.  
  
Drevlyn's gaze flickered to his Queen. She was watching him silently   
from her perch on the end of the bed, emerald gaze steady.   
  
"You forget Drevlyn. She was granted immortality but she's   
defenseless, as defenseless as a babe..." Jareth glowered at the   
Dragon Queen. "As she ever was before," he amended sourly. "I... If   
this had been directed at her she would have been dead right now   
instead of greviously wounded."   
  
"Yes," Drevlyn replied, voice sardonic, "instead it was, luckily,   
directed at my Queen and the future of my race. My future Jareth.   
What the hell got into you back there?" The question, the accusation   
came too soon. The Dragon Prince realized it the moment the bitter   
words left his mouth.   
  
Jareth had not thought before he acted back there. Drevlyn should   
have expected little else. He had professed his love of the human to   
the Dragon Prince, had sworn not to reveal that love until he knew,   
without a shadow of a doubt, that it was returned. But Jareth was   
never good with controlling his anger and his brush with Evirey had   
set him on edge... Drevlyn's interference and slight breech of trust   
had probably only heightened the Goblin King's uneasiness. When faced   
by another wanting what was already claimed and sworn as his...  
  
No wonder he had lashed out, even if it was directed at the Dragon   
Queen. Jareth pulled himself to his full and considerable height,   
eyes blazing as he glared down his almost brother.  
  
"I shall not be criticized in my own home. In my Labyrinth, in my   
castle, in my private quarters. I am King here Drevlyn, never forget   
it." Drevlyn fought back rising anger of his own but couldn't stop   
the acid reply that came rushing out.  
  
"And would you have us leave? Would you feed us to our enemies   
Jareth? Go ahead! Tell us to leave! We shall, in a heart beat!   
We'll be gone, and dead a breath later." Jareth hissed, furious.  
  
"I didn't ask to be your bloody protector Drevlyn!"  
  
"No!" Drevlyn snapped back, "You volunteered! Or does Dragon's Trust   
mean nothing to you?" Jareth wanted to hit him, Drevlyn could see it   
in his cold mismatched eyes, and only barely managed to fight down the   
urge in himself. Jareth was not an easy man to fight with, despite   
his inclination to anger. The only one Drevlyn had ever seen handle   
the Goblin King in a state of true fury was Sarah. Sarah who lay,   
still, pale, like marble. Beloved marble.  
  
The new Queen of the Dragons broke the moment. She was off the bed   
like lightning and standing, roused, in between the two men, sliver   
smoke pouring out of flared nostrils.   
  
'Fools!' The mental reprimand was scathing. Two pairs of eyes fixed   
on her, the argument broken by her timely unwanted interruption.   
Emerald eyes whirled and sparked as a golden snout pointed, accusing,   
to the silent human who shifted in the restless slumber of one lost to   
unconsciousness.  
  
'I live and she lives yet. No fighting! We stay, for now.' Drevlyn   
bowed promptly with the verdict of his Queen and she smiled a Dragon's   
smile.   
  
"And if I demand that you both leave?" Jareth's delicately poised   
question was deadly. The newborn Dragon cast a bland calculating   
glance towards the cold, seething Goblin King.  
  
'If I leave Sarah leaves. We will all die at Draculo's fangs.' It   
was said off handedly but, gods, it was the truth and every conscious   
being in the room knew that.   
  
Knew that for all her power the Dragon Queen was still a child, a   
babe. Never mind that she possessed the racial memory of every Queen   
before her. That in a week's time she would be able to handle all   
affairs of the Dragon State. It would be fifty years before she could   
transform into a human, full grown. Seventy five before she would   
marry and Drevlyn would become King of the Dragons, complete, and   
Jareth's equal.   
  
Dragons were unique as a race. In their monarchy only the position of   
King was handed down by blood. Drevlyn was son of the reclusive,   
previous King of the Dragons and the deceased Queen. A Queen could   
come from any one bloodline though... Whenever the current Queen   
stepped down or, due to choice or tragedy, died, one egg out of all   
the eggs laid by every female Dragon had a chance of being the Queen,   
identified by the gold shell.   
  
There was less discontent, less revolt that way which was fortunate.   
Despite Drevlyn's easy-going manner Dragons, on a whole, were hot   
blooded and quick to goad into a rage. There was enough tumult now   
that, that not even Draco castle was a safe refuge. There were enough   
magical protections to shield the weak and vulnerable Queen from the   
wrath of Dragon's mortal enemies, Vampires, to be sure but betrayal   
from within the Dragons was all too likely now days. Not all   
bloodlines had been pleased by the birth of this newest Queen.  
  
Without an acting King and bereft of a Queen the Dragons, as a race,   
had been stagnant and powerless politically. They had no one to   
represent them at Sidhe Court and didn't have enough magical power to   
ignore the Court with the arrogance that Jareth succeeded with.   
  
For almost thirty years there had been no Queen egg and, little hope   
for the Dragons as a whole, save the friendship of one particular   
Goblin King. A friendship that had been sorely tested as of late. A   
friendship that was one of the sole reasons that Dragons still existed   
as an independent race. There was not slavery Underground but there   
was war. There was the bitter enmity of the Vampires to contend   
with.   
  
But the little Dragon Queen could not, would not leave without Sarah.   
  
"Jareth... forgive me my harsh words, forgive my race its impetuous   
actions." Drevlyn bowed his head and stepped away, putting distance   
between himself and the irate Goblin King, protector, defender of the   
Dragon people, his people, as the little gold Dragon watched on with   
silent approval. Drevlyn spread his clawed hands before him in   
supplication before continuing, frightened, because so much rested on   
the good will of his hot tempered friend.   
  
"Please, try to understand about Sarah... I, you are holder of   
Dragon's Trust but I, none of us, ever explained, truly explained what   
that title means. This you know, that by accepting it you are made,   
in all sense but form, one of us forever. I could call you Brother   
and none would gainsay me.   
  
"But its something greater as well. Dragons don't have a true   
childhood. We grow larger, stronger, more sure, but our minds are   
almost fully formed when we are born. Every Dragon has a store of   
racial memory passed down through their bloodline and family tree,   
bits of stored wealth and personality... this you know as well. What   
you do not know, what no one does outside the small select circle of   
Dragon's Trust is that we, we are very vulnerable when we are born.   
  
"You... imagine cracking open the only world you have ever known and   
finding yourself in a place where your head is already full of a   
thousand bits of wisdom, where you must speak and move and think along   
with hundreds of voices, ghosts of the past, clamoring for a say.   
  
"Insanity is common in young who do not soul touch when they come out   
of the egg. Its is vital, necessary, for a child to make contact, to   
touch the soul, the mind, of an ordered, coherent individual, to feel   
common sense and reasoning at work, to know what their own mind, their   
own souls, should look like.   
  
"There's a bond between those who are soul touched and, it is a sacred   
position usually held by close family friends, other Dragons.   
Occasionally, when another being has proven themselves worthy, beyond,   
above worthy they go through the ceremony that was performed for you   
Jareth. And in becoming part of our race those of Dragon Trust are   
candidates for soul touch.   
  
"There are some beings who walk from cave to cave, meeting children as   
they come from the egg, giving them the gift of sanity and ordered   
thought. I... Forgive me Jareth. I thought, hoped, that you would   
be the one that my Queen soul touched.  
  
"My people are troubled Jareth, are in so much pain, and I cannot help   
them, not yet. Not until my Queen, my treasure, is grown, is strong   
enough to mend the tears of the Dragons. I... I have never met anyone   
with more strength, with more power, with a soul as bright as yours.   
I did not tell you because I feared you would refuse to let another   
being look into your heart. And she would have. If you were the   
first person she saw when she breathed her first gasp of air then she   
would have saw the deepest parts of you and, would have reflected   
them. We are not made by those we soul touch, but we are formed, are   
molded into a rough approximation that time and life smoothes and   
polishes.  
  
"I, I did not set out to deceive you. You are my Brother Jareth but I   
can't stand by and do nothing, not when, by giving such a small part   
of yourself, you could save a race so close to being lost." The   
Goblin King's frigid, severe features did not soften with Drevlyn's   
speech, did not forgive, but his eyes, the tightness around his full   
mouth eased, thawed. The angry line of Jareth's shoulders wavered and   
broke. The Dragon Prince tried not to weep in relief.  
  
"But your Queen soul touched Sarah. Sarah is not of Dragon's Trust."   
The little Queen blinked once and replied.  
  
'Sarah holder of Dragon's Trust.' Jareth raised brows high in   
response.  
  
"Not that I am aware of Dragon Queen." The little Queen blinked,   
lazily, again.  
  
'I am Queen. Sarah holder of Dragon's Trust.' Drevlyn shrugged   
helplessly at Jareth's sharp look.  
  
"She... she is Queen Jareth. In that she is no different than you.   
Her word is law." The Queen startled them both by stepping forward   
and nudging Jareth's still fisted hand.  
  
'She wakes Goblin King. We will retire to our rooms now.' The little   
Queen paused for a moment and studied the Goblin King who met the   
emerald gaze with brooding eyes. The newborn Dragon clicked sharply   
and continued.  
  
'Love her well. Do not cause her pain, more than you have dealt   
anyway. She is, she is beautiful inside as well. Remember that.'   
The Dragon went to the bed side where Sarah rolled, cold lips   
murmuring soundlessly, restless in her physical pain. The Queen   
touched her golden snout to one pale, lifeless hand, and turned to   
leave, Drevlyn at her heel. She paused once, in the door way, and met   
Jareth's piercing, hawk like eyes.  
  
'When I leave, she leaves.'   
  
The Goblin King replied, voice wintry.  
  
"Then you shall be here for a very long time indeed Dragon Queen for   
Sarah is mine, by my word, and her own." The little Dragon snorted   
once in amusement and inclined her reptilian head, not a bow, but a   
gesture of mutual respect.   
  
'Good. She is yours, I am hers, and she is mine. And...' The Dragon   
Queen faltered for a minute before her mental voice continued, softer,   
more unguarded, less demanding as her emerald eyes shifted to Sarah.  
  
'I have chosen a name.' Beside her Drevlyn stiffened. It usually   
took years before a young Dragon decided upon a name, not hours. But   
she was Queen. Her word was law. The newborn Dragon finished   
speaking.  
  
'My... My name is Melani. I am not Sarah's child but... One day I   
hope someone will love me as she loves that girl. That someone will   
love this Dragon Queen.' Her bright eyes flickered to Drevlyn who,   
astonished by this unwarranted, unexpected, unprecedented show of   
eloquent speech, was even more unnerved by the longing in his future   
mate's voice.   
  
Sarah's soul must be very beautiful indeed. The Dragon Queen, Melani,   
left then, a gold shadow, and Drevlyn, after exchanging a many layered   
look with Jareth, followed, gently closing the door behind him.   
  
Leaving Jareth and Sarah alone.   
  
Suddenly weak steps carried the Goblin King to her side. Jareth   
swallowed. She was beautiful indeed, beautiful in such a fragile,   
achingly fragile way. Sarah seemed so strong sometimes, was. Strong   
enough to beat him at his own game, strong enough to capture his   
capricious heart. Strong enough to be hit by a magical blow that   
should have killed her.  
  
Meant for her or not there was no way she should have been able to   
survive that much power being thrown in her face. Almost hadn't.   
Jareth swallowed again, terribly aware of how close he had just come   
to losing something, someone that he had dreamed of for over twenty   
years.   
  
He wasn't the only one who hadn't been forgotten. He had woken up   
enough times with her name, her elegant name on wistful lips, to know   
that there was no use in pretending, in wishing for his heart and   
sanity back. He would die for her and that frightened him, frightened   
him almost as much as losing her because that meant, on a level never   
before imagined, that he was losing himself, to love, to Sarah.  
  
To a human that was his for eternity. But there were no guarantees   
that went with that eternity. No way for Jareth to know if Sarah would   
ever love him back, despite his assured words to Drevlyn, to himself.   
  
The Goblin King sighed deeply as he sat on the edge of his bed and   
took up one cold hand within his own warm one. He kissed the knuckles   
and closed a pain filled gaze before leaning down and kissing a brow   
unwrinkled yet by time, despite the two decades that had passed.   
  
"Oh Sarah," he whispered as the other hand reached up rested, the back   
of his hand against her flushed cheeks. "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah... Do   
you have any idea what I've been through, what I'd go through, what   
I'm guaranteed to suffer for you? Do you have any idea what it's like   
to be in love with someone who may never return that love?"   
  
Sarah's eyes fluttered and, with a tired sigh of her own, opened.   
  
  
  
  
AN2: Just a side note, cliff hangers aside, you guys will know when   
I'm finished with this story. Trust me, the whole world will know.   
I'll be darn glad to get my preoccupied mind back I might add. This   
story has taken rein and isn't nice about letting go. =) Till 13...  
  
~Kei 


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Emotional Confessions

AN: Yes, lucky thirteen... LOL Got my first flame for this story the   
other day... was curious to see how long it would take. *shrugs* Neway   
hope ya'll have had a good couple of days. I think I'm about half way   
through this story so far... *mentally counts chapters* I think, and   
just for the record this will almost, in all likelihood, not have a   
sequel. I'm awful about writing them... =) So enjoy and review, while   
it lasts, though this will not be my last Laby fic by any stretch of   
the imagination... Specially since I have another one cooking already,   
for future writing, a humorous one... An author can only write so much   
angst/serious stuff you know. Though I have to finish my SM fics   
before everyone kills me... hehe  
  
Disclaimer: and ever and ever and, bleh, for ever. That's enough of that!  
  
  
********************Sacrifices:Chapter Thirteen*******************  
  
  
  
"Do you have any idea what it's like to be in love with someone who   
may never return that love?"  
  
Sarah opened her eyes, opened clear pain filled eyes and caught the   
startled, mismatched stare of the Goblin King. God, her body burned   
and her flesh was seared with the residue of Jareth's magical fire.  
  
"And how much of my soliloquy did you hear foolish one?" Jareth asked   
with a half feral, hungry smirk twisting his lips. His eyes were   
resigned. Sarah sighed, a slip of sound torn from a weary throat, and   
wished, for one single fervent second that she hadn't woke, wished   
just as fervently that she had the ability to lie to this Goblin King,   
her King.   
  
"Enough," she replied softly, throat sore, almost raw. Jareth nodded,   
coolly, distantly, but did not otherwise acknowledge her answer. Did   
not try to retract his words. Sarah knew why. His word was law. He   
may not have been eager to voice, to speak his feelings, but once he   
did he would not try to unsay them. Other Kings might have but not   
Jareth, not the Goblin King.  
  
Sarah tried to sit. It seemed wrong, somehow, to face Jareth lying   
down, practically helpless, no, helpless, or as helpless as she ever   
was. Her strength failed her though, and it was only Jareth's tender,   
warm hands that supported her.   
  
"You really are a child sometimes Sarah. An attack like that would   
have killed anyone, anyone but you. You shouldn't tempt Lady Luck.   
Rest, recover your strength, and then we'll speak of your   
insubordination." His voice was nonchalant, casual, the usual mix of   
arrogance and scorn despite the gentleness of his touch, and Sarah   
struggled through her fogged mind to try to grasp the layers, the   
complexities that were the Goblin King. Nothing could ever just be   
simple with him.  
  
"Wait..." Jareth paused in his act of disentangling his hands from   
hers.   
  
"Yes Sarah?" he asked, tone a shade more distant, face so unyielding.   
Damn she hurt so much.   
  
"What, what happened in there? With the Dragon and Drevlyn and..."   
She faltered, remembrance of the end of that encounter causing her   
aches to become more pronounced. Jareth lifted regal brows in an   
expression of learned, mocking surprise.  
  
"Why, you disobeyed my orders and almost got yourself whisked away by   
the new Dragon Queen. And then, you foolish girl, you stepped   
directly into a magical attack not meant in any way for you." Sarah's   
mind slid over the Dragon, the Dragon Prince, and focused on what   
Jareth had called her.  
  
"Foolish perhaps," she replied softly, not sure what prompted her to   
respond to it, "but not a girl. No thirty five year old woman is a   
girl." Jareth's hands slipped away, leaving her own naked, bare, more   
bare than the lack of a single engagement ring made them somehow. He   
rose from his seat on the bed and Sarah was faintly surprised to   
realize that they were in the Goblin King's quarters. She didn't know   
if it was her imagination or not but somehow she felt like the   
distance Jareth put between them was needed, for her composure and,   
oddly enough, for his own.   
  
"You wear your years proudly Sarah," he quipped, tone even colder.   
She didn't know what in the world caused her to respond with anger to   
that subtle dig. She was in no shape to engage in, much less win, a   
verbal sparring match with the Goblin King.  
  
"And you wear your cruelty as a poor shield Jareth."  
  
One quick, furious stride, brought him back to her side. He knelt,   
for she couldn't rise, and his face, his lips, hovered inches from   
hers. He was Jareth, Goblin King, ruler of the Labyrinth as he   
hovered above her, resplendent, mystical, alluring, and dangerous.   
His eyes glinted and his smile would have frightened a rabid wolf.   
Ashen hair framed his angular, fierce face like some kind of demented   
halo of pale gold. One hand, gloved in thin black silk, came up and   
caressed her face.  
  
His touch was still tender, still gentle, but there was fire in it   
now, fire and, quite plainly, lust. Even if he mocked her age he was   
not repulsed by it. Not in the slightest.   
  
"Do you want to play games Sarah? Would you like to play with your   
King?" He waited for her answer, confident in his superiority,   
certain in his ability to frighten her, cow her.   
  
Sarah laughed.   
  
It was not the hysterical laughter of weeks pervious though, it was   
low throaty, the laugh of a woman who was about to surprise a man.   
"What if I said yes Jareth? Blatant innuendoes lose their shock   
impact after twenty years. As you have repeatedly pointed out, I'm   
not fifteen anymore." Damn it, if he wanted to leave he was going to   
leave because he said so, not because he frightened her into wishing   
him away. He sneered.  
  
"More's the pity."  
  
"Not as easy to control at thirty five, am I?" And suddenly he was   
much closer than mere inches. Sarah's vision was obscured by a cloud   
of that angelic, demonic hair as Jareth whispered in her ear, his   
breath warming her neck as his hand trailed down to rest on shoulders   
left exposed by her tattered dress.  
  
"More easy dear Sarah, now I have a child's future to hold over your   
head." Shock, and sudden, fierce rage of her own gave Sarah enough   
strength to pull back and prop herself up with her elbows.   
  
"Bastard," she spat as she met Jareth's frigid eyes. Oh he wasn't   
about to deny that he loved her, in his own, twisted way, but he   
wasn't about to forgive her for overhearing him, for finding out.   
  
"Tut tut Sarah, mind your manners," he mocked, face a picture of   
terrible amusement, though his eyes... How could his face, his voice,   
be so completely and utterly different from his eyes? From his   
hungry, lonely eyes.   
  
"King Bastard?" she asked, her own voice tight, angry, angrier than   
she had ever been at the Goblin King. Angry and, dizzy... Sarah   
swallowed, eyes screwed shut to ward off her weakness as her body   
lowered involuntarily towards the bed, sudden strength spent.  
  
She opened them in time to see a moment of confusion and yes, pain, on   
the Goblin King's face before the immovable mask returned and he   
straightened, once again a statue of black silk and pale skin. He   
tapped the side of one cheek with a gloved finger.  
  
"Sometimes I wonder if you're really as brave as you appear, or simply   
stupid."  
  
"Funny," Sarah panted through waves of renewed, feverish pain, "I've   
often wondered the same about you." Jareth growled and the sound, God   
the sound set her teeth on edge.   
  
"I am a dangerous man to cross Sarah." The statement was a warning,   
clear as a bell. Sarah ignored it, for the moment forgetting Melanie,   
forgetting everything but the here and now, the here and now and   
thirteen hours of a game played so long ago.  
  
"How long?" she demanded, changing the subject like lightning. Jareth   
hissed.  
  
"How long what?"   
  
She dared it, risked meeting his eyes, just as boldly as she had that   
time she had proclaimed him her King, and just as quickly tried to   
assault him for making her immortal. Sarah shuddered. She didn't   
quite know if she could handle an eternity of this...  
  
"How long have you loved me?"   
  
Jareth stared, stared without sneer or condescending smirk, stared,   
open mouthed, shocked, numbed, confounded by the simple question.   
Sarah refused to look away and her eyes, her eyes dared him to run,   
dared him to lie. Dared him to ignore the question, and to prove   
himself weak. Jareth could never refuse a challenge to his power,   
his authority like that.   
  
"So you do wish to play games," he whispered and the whisper, it was   
weaker, a thing of stress and tension, not seduction. "I..." Jareth   
looked away and when he turned back Sarah regretted asking because she   
knew, as he started to answer, that Jareth would never forgive her for  
asking, nay demanding, this of him, this simple, painful truth. For   
further making him acknowledge that he was in love with her.   
  
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" he asked finally. And   
suddenly she was the one who wanted to look away.   
  
"No," Sarah breathed. Jareth's eyes darkened and Sarah remembered,   
remembered her first glimpse of her savior, her knight in shining   
armor, Devon. Jareth noted, saw the concession in her suddenly tear   
filled gaze, noted it and just as bitterly knew where it came from.   
  
He turned his heel and walked away. Sarah made no move to stop him,   
to call him back. He hadn't answered her hundreds of questions,   
hadn't told her of the baby Dragon or Drevlyn or, or what it meant to   
be the subject of a Goblin King who was in love with her. But he had   
answered her one question and that was all Sarah could handle at the   
moment.   
  
She sank down into the soft pillows and silken sheets, not even caring   
that she was in Jareth's bed, simply thankful for its presence.   
Simply, ashamedly, thankful for his absence. She sobbed, in physical   
and emotional pain, hating herself for being half willing to play the   
Goblin King's games, for almost killing herself in order to preserve a   
friendship she wasn't sure she saved, for being stupid enough to eat   
the peach the first time she was here and getting herself stuck back   
in the Labyrinth in the first place.  
  
For loving Devon with all she had and knowing that it would never be   
enough. He was her Prince, her Knight, and her Savior. He would die   
for her, gladly, would worship her even if she was a hundred, would   
never forget an anniversary or forsake any vow he had ever taken in   
honor of their almost union. He would have married her and have never   
looked at another woman again.   
  
But Jareth had ruined her. Had destroyed her fairy tale. She had   
only been a child twenty years ago but even then she had sensed the   
darkness in the Goblin King, and been attracted to it. Been drawn to   
it. Lost her faith in the perfection of total nobility.   
  
'A little darkness is good now and again, for it makes the light shine   
that much brighter...' Devon was a beacon of goodness and Sarah loved   
him so much, but not completely, not wholly. Not enough to lose   
herself, not enough to be happy forever, not enough to be content.   
Because she sensed that there was someone out there who could satisfy   
her, could be that perfect mixture of darkness and light.   
  
And Sarah was terribly, terribly afraid of who that person was. 


	15. Chapter Fourteen: A Unicorn's Revenge

AN: Hi guys! Thanks for all the super reviews! I never even   
imagined that I'd get this many (nearly 150) and they all mean   
a lot! Hope the past couple of days have been good for everyone...  
  
Disclaimer: *scratches head* Damn. I got the chapter out, isn't   
that enough creativity? Standard disclaimers apply! =) Muhahaha...  
  
  
  
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Fourteen*****************  
  
  
Jareth cradled his aching, pounding head in claw like hands. Sarah   
knew, of his love, his love for her. She knew and she had just lain   
there, not condemning, not rejecting, but damn it, not embracing, not   
accepting his words, his heart, his immortal soul, his eternal love.   
She had even had the nerve to ask... to ask when it was she had so   
totally ensnared him, the mighty, cold, Goblin King.  
  
'Do you believe in love at first sight?' Jareth wouldn't have   
believed in love at all until she had swept into his life, with her   
child like demands, with her eyes, her haunting, dark, dark eyes.   
  
It had been a mistake, to bring her back, to bring her here. To let   
her reenter his life. He shouldn't have gone at all, to claim the   
child, to finish their bargain. It was a technicality and Sarah, had   
she been High Sidhe, had she been one of his people, his equal, could   
have, would have been able to contest his will, his claim on the   
little girl named Melanie.   
  
He forgot sometimes, how little she really knew, how powerless she   
really was. There was something about Sarah that reminded him so much  
of one of the High Sidhe, a High Sidhe without the cruelty, without   
the pettiness, without the ugliness in her soul, a dream made flesh,   
flesh and woman and mortal, mortal turned immortal.  
  
He should have let her live her life with the human. Should have let   
her raise the child, be married, find her happily ever after. Would   
have let her live with her fiancé, and simply have taken the girl, to   
love as his own, to love as a being cherished by the only person he   
would ever be able to care for.   
  
Damn it he should have said no! He should have denied Sarah's   
desperate deal, her offer, her sacrifice. He should have gathered the   
toddler in gentle arms and borne Melanie to his world, away from   
Aboveground and an almost mother who would have missed her so very   
much. Perhaps it was selfishness on his part but Jareth could never   
deny Sarah her dreams, her wishes, no matter how often she rejected   
them.  
  
And she had wished to save the child.   
  
Perhaps some part of himself, some animal, instinctive part had   
recognized that, had laid the trap, had plotted it to end like this   
all along. Hoggle had thought as much. And the damn creature was   
right about another thing... If he had taken her at all, he should   
have taken her long ago. Not out of pity or compassion for Sarah but   
because...  
  
Because he had stared into her eyes and seen a longing there. He had   
seen the way she looked at him sometimes, half hungry, still wary, but   
not frightened, not hateful, angry still, but he was no longer a   
monster in her mind. He was no longer a monster, even if he would  
always, to some extent, be a villain...   
  
But he could never be her Prince, her cliched Knight. He could never   
satisfy the little princess inside her dreamer heart because another   
had claimed that position before him. Had ridden into her life, had   
saved her from the fires of Hell, had borne his Sarah away from   
certain death.   
  
Jareth's mouth curled into a twisted smile. Well, he had saved her   
from certain Death, even if she wasn't quite as appreciative of his   
rescue as she had been of Devon's... Damn, the name came out bitter   
even in his mind!  
  
Jareth's head snapped up from his seat on a wooden bench in one of the   
sparse outer rooms of his quarters. Magic flared into the room, a   
precedence for the trumpet fanfare that followed. The Goblin King   
drew himself up in an instant, face rabid as Evirey stepped into his   
castle.   
  
She bowed, a picture of austere royalty, though her flimsy robes were   
still as revealing as always. Unicorns weren't much for modesty, and   
Evirey knew she was beautiful. Her eyes danced though, danced and   
gleamed with triumph.   
  
She carried an official missive in blunted fingers and, as a messenger   
for the Sidhe Court, had its full protection. Jareth couldn't touch   
her. He should know, he had created the spell. Only in the   
Aboveground were messengers killed for being the bearers for bad   
news. Here messenger was one of the safest positions in the entire   
Underground.  
  
"What do you want?" Jareth snarled. Evirey laughed, a tinkling of   
light made sound as she rose and held out the rolled up parchment.  
  
"I bring you a summons to your Judgment Session Jareth." He raised   
cold brows as he snatched the document away and scanned the words   
angrily.  
  
"How many virgins did you have to sacrifice in order to get it this   
fast?" Evirey smiled and she was a cat with cream and a canary on the   
side. Revenge was a Unicorn specialty.  
  
"Does it matter?" she sneered elegantly. Evirey was the only other   
immortal who had ever been able to blend style and disdain as well as   
he. "The date it set, three weeks hence. You had better be there   
Jareth, you risk your kingdom if you defy us in this. We shall all be   
waiting..." With that last, satisfied sing song parting, magic flared   
again and the Queen of the Unicorns was gone.   
  
And Jareth was damned.  
  
The official missive turned to fine ash as one sharp word from Jareth   
set it ablaze in his palms. Sarah knew he loved her and in two weeks   
they would stand before a court of his bloodthirsty peers. In two   
weeks he would have to prove, to in front of a room of enemies, that   
Sarah belonged to him. In three weeks she would have to prove that   
she belonged to him.   
  
Or she would be Evirey's... Draculo's... Tortar's... Even, perhaps,   
Melani's. And Jareth would have truly lost her for forever.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
The spell faded from Drevlyn's taloned hands. Melani, Queen of the   
Dragons, rocked back on her haunches, green eyes thoughtful. 'What   
happened in his bedroom do you think?' Drevlyn shrugged.  
  
"I don't know my Queen. He... I have rarely seen Jareth come   
unraveled and he is perilously close to losing his sanity, and temper,   
in all this." The little Queen snorted imperiously.   
  
'I believe that Jareth has already lost his temper Dragon Prince.'   
Drevlyn smiled and it was an emotionless, glittering thing.  
  
"Nay my Queen... Jareth was angry little one but he still kept some   
semblance of control, even as he tried to blast you from existence.   
If had truly lost all control of his anger..." The smile faltered   
and failed as the Goblin King's almost brother sighed and closed   
yellow eyes. "If he had truly lost all control of his rage we would   
be standing in a smoking crater right now. It is a dangerous thing,   
to hold as much power, as much raw energy and emotion as Jareth does.  
  
"The council fears him, and rightly. I... If I think about it too   
much I can almost be afraid of him too. Be glad my Queen that the   
Goblin King chooses sharp words and sardonic amusement over ambition   
and power or our world would be a very different place than it is   
today, bloodier, darker, a very different place indeed." Melani   
closed jaded eyes in response and sighed herself, dark silver smoke   
drifting from her elegant nostrils. She would be a beautiful Queen   
one day...  
  
'Jareth, Jareth is old, even for an immortal, isn't he?' Drevlyn   
smiled that brittle smile again, all teeth, and replied softly,   
unconscious pity creeping into his voice as he stared into a place and   
time long past.  
  
"He... we grew up together some Melani. He was older than I was but   
Goblins mature much slower than Dragons. Much. He... he is old. I   
am not young myself but Jareth. He can remember the pyramids being  
built, has seen the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He has walked   
islands where no man has sullied the green perfection with the   
cacophony of mortal voices or greed.  
  
"I am his almost brother Melani. I am always, will always, be there   
for him but he has traveled much of his journey on his own. I... I   
don't know what to think of him in love Dragon Queen. I don't know   
what draws him to the human named Sarah Williams but I know that he   
has never let himself be so trapped, so ensnared by another. And I am   
very afraid that he will be hurt, hurt so badly that I can't heal him,  
that he can't heal himself."  
  
Melani's air escaped as a hiss of steam. 'Then he truly loves her?'   
Drevlyn's sad smile and gentle nod answered the question. 'Then you   
shall watch out for your brother and I shall watch out for my sister,   
for my Sarah. If an immortal Goblin King can be hurt so easily, by   
someone who holds nothing but beauty in her soul, then a newly   
immortalized human can be just as burned.' Drevlyn laughed softly and   
bowed to his Queen, yellow eyes warming to somber gold.  
  
"Agreed."   
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Sarah woke with feeling of warm dry scales against her bare skin. She   
rolled over and jumped at the sight of the amused Dragon Queen   
lounging next to her like a giant golden cat, bright against the dark   
of Jareth's silk sheets.  
  
"What...?" Sarah asked, trying to gather her thoughts. She was too   
surprised to flinch when the Dragon Queen reached up with taloned   
'hands' to pat touch Sarah gently on her cheeks. A deep emerald gaze,   
so dark that Sarah could barely see the slitted pupils in the Dragon's   
bejeweled eyes, studied her.  
  
'You have questions, ask me, and I will answer to the best of my   
ability. I am at your service.' Sarah shivered as the voice, warm,   
bright, and already so much more mature than the stuttered speech of   
her as a defiant, newborn Queen, touched Sarah's mind in a way that   
was more comfortable than Sarah liked.   
  
"I... Why do you speak mind to mind when Drevlyn speaks out loud?"   
There was a sudden narrowing of suspicious eyes as Sarah thought of   
something, "Can you read my mind?" The Dragon Queen laughed.  
  
'No Sarah. Dragons cannot read minds. I speak this way because this   
is how all Dragons speak when we are in our true forms. Our snouts   
are unable to produce vocalizations necessary for external language.   
When we are in our version of human form, like you have seen Drevlyn,   
we are only able to speak aloud. I will not be able to take human   
form for fifty years, until I'm fully grown.' The talons lowered as   
the Dragon Queen sat on all fours and looked, amused, at Sarah, who   
was rather ataken back by the blunt, uncomplicated answer.   
  
'Any more questions about your new world?' Sarah smiled grimly as she   
sat opposite of the young Dragon, Indian style.  
  
"More than you could possibly imagine. First where is everyone?" The   
Dragon Queen yawned.   
  
'Drevlyn is back in our, my rooms, pacing. I did not feel his   
presence was required. Jareth is, is attending matters of state, and   
that is all the information I have at this time.' The last coaxed a   
softer smile from the immortal human.  
  
"Good enough... Now what exactly happened back there, with the egg,   
and you, and Jareth..."   
  
  
  
  
AN2: Yeah, not the most thrilling of chapters but can you guess what's   
coming up? Think the Sidhe Court in all its grandeur... LOL, loads   
of fun huh? ;) Adjective time, hehe.  
  
PS: The title doesn't really fit for this chapter but oh well... 


	16. Chapter Fifteen: You Love Me Not?

AN: Hay everyone... Please forgive small spelling/ grammar errors...   
I'm exhausted but really wanted to get this next section out. I   
think I covered most the plot holes I've dug for myself that I wanted   
to address in this chapter but give a yell if something is totally   
confusing...LOL... Thanks a million times to everyone who has left   
me a few words in the review box, bless you all! =)  
  
Disclaimer: Zzzzzz... *thrashes in sleep and mumbles* 'Not mine...'  
  
  
  
*********************Sacrifices: Chapter Fifteen****************  
  
  
  
Hellin's small fingers carefully smoothed away the imaginary wrinkles   
in Sarah's magnificent dress. Make that gown, nothing so ornate could   
be called a dress. It was, it was the ballroom only a thousand times   
more beautiful, more elegant, more mature. She sighed as she stared   
at herself in the still cracked vanity mirror. Her imperfect   
reflection stared back from worried hazel eyes.   
  
The gown was a beautiful royal blue, off the shoulder, with long   
sleeves that flared at the wrist. The top was modest enough, modest   
for Jareth's taste, but fitted her full form closely until it reached   
her slender waist where it flared slightly. The color was hardly   
uniform... the silk was dyed in a cascade of blues, mostly royal. The   
bodice was a sky blue that melted downward, into royal and finally, at   
the bottom, a deep, almost midnight, blue. The ends of her sleeves   
and hem were tattered, torn strategically to add layers without the   
bulk.  
  
Sarah's hair was a simple waterfall of sable. Hellin had braided   
small sections and tied them off with silver wire and small gemstones   
and it framed her face which was emphasized with silver lip stick and   
dark blue eye shadow around her eyes.   
  
"I... I don't know if I can do this Hellin." The Low Sidhe stopped   
her fussing for a moment, torn in between indecision to speak, or to   
remain silent. Her King had never chastised her for her slips to her   
Mistress. Had never threatened with the Bog of Eternal Stench or the   
Oubliette.   
  
Hellin didn't know what was worse, being punished, or being ignored   
beyond receiving direct orders. Sometimes she almost thought that she   
preferred the Goblin King's wrath...  
  
"What can you not do Mistress?" Sarah swallowed, face pale in her   
reflection, waxen.   
  
"I... Hellin how can I face them, the Sidhe Court? Imagine a hundred   
Jareths, all leering, all judging, all smiling with that damn arrogant   
smile... What being could possibly stand up against that?" Hellin   
laughed softly, though there was pity in it.   
  
"Let me reassure you Mistress that the Court is not compromised of a   
hundred Jareths. King Jareth is unique, both in his power and in that   
subtle mixture of charm and menace. You will see things, things that   
you have never even dreamed of. You know of Unicorns and Goblins and   
Dragons because they periodically enter the world Above. But there   
are other races, more reclusive, more content to exist in the   
boundaries of the Underground that humanity cannot even dream of,   
guess at, describe.   
  
"Besides Mistress, what more can you do then what you've been told?   
Stand in front of the Sidhe Court and tell them who you are, subject   
of Jareth, King of the Goblins, human turned immortal... Tell them."   
Sarah whirled, hazel eyes lightning with fire as she answered, voice   
intense but quiet, almost soft, a soft with edges of pain and lacings   
of fear...  
  
"And that's, that's what makes me so very afraid Hellin. How would   
you feel to be that powerless when your future is being decided? I am   
not, I am not happy here Hellin but damn it I chose this prison! I   
made my bargain with the proverbial Devil. I sold my soul but I sold   
it in good faith! What right has this Council to gainsay me?   
  
"Too belittle my sacrifice? To make it all for nothing?" Hellin   
looked away from her Mistress's burning gaze.  
  
"You fear King Jareth will break his word and snatch your daughter   
away?" Sarah hissed as her arms came up and she hugged herself, a   
fragile shield against the world.  
  
"No Hellin. I do not fear that Jareth, King Jareth will break his   
word. I fear that I will break mine. I gave him Melanie twenty years   
ago Hellin. He accepted me in her place, a trump card, an achievment   
to be proud of. I may have defeated him as a child but the King of   
the Goblins owns me now, as a woman grown.   
  
"But without me Hellin? He has no prize, nothing to show for his   
tender pride, to salve his wounded dignity. He, he told me he loved   
me Hellin." Helin sucked in her breath and rocked back on her heels   
to regard the much taller woman with frank blue eyes. Sarah smiled   
but it was small, strained. She hadn't even told the Dragon Queen,   
Melani, that he had said that, even over their dozens of conversations   
of the last two weeks. It had always seemed, wrong, to speak of that   
word with the little gold Dragon. With that so mature child who had   
named herself after Sarah's own lost daughter.  
  
"Do, do you believe him?" Sarah blinked at the question and didn't   
reply for a moment, lost in memories of a dizzying dance and a   
heartbreaking song sung out of desperation and a kind of fierce hunger   
before Sarah had torn the Goblin King's world in two. Lost in   
memories of lively hair and a Goblin King's unexpected, half forgotten   
tears. Sarah had never even known that Goblins were capable of crying   
before that day two weeks ago, when she had almost died to save a   
friendship, a brotherhood, that she would never be a part of.   
  
"Yes." The quiet answer slipped from her without realization but once   
it left her quivering lips it took the cloak of truth and wore it   
well. Sarah believed in the existence of a certain Goblin King's   
love, with all her troubled heart, but she wasn't totally certain that   
she believed IN it.   
  
"He... He would never lie." Hellin snorted.  
  
"Any King would lie, to protect his people, even King Jareth." Sarah   
sighed in frustration.  
  
"And what could possibly be protected by him lying about loving me?"   
Hellin grimaced and went to move away, troubled, unwilling to speak   
farther. Sarah's shaking hand clasped the Goblin girl's shoulder and   
held her tight. There was silence between them before Hellin finally   
replied, unwillingly.   
  
"You, you go before the Sidhe Court today. You don't understand our   
world or our ways but you are integrally part of them now Mistress.   
There are dangers that you don't know enough about to fear. You, you   
are something to King Jareth... Whether he cares for your safety, or   
for the fact that you are his, it would be very easy for you to be   
lead astray.   
  
"You are a dreamer Mistress Sarah. Few mortals who enter our realm   
through belief are anything else. There will be temptation at the   
Court, temptation in the guise of creatures, of beings you thought   
only existed in dreams, if at all. There will beings who you shall be   
the first human to ever set eyes on them.   
  
"But if you think that he loves you Mistress you shall be that much   
less likely to go back on your word. To be bedazzled by the Sidhe   
Court." Sarah laughed and it held no amusement.  
  
"And why should the King of the Goblin's confession of love bind me   
any tighter to him than the promise of a child's future destroyed?"   
Hellin echoed Sarah's dark laughter.  
  
"Because, because dreamers have very big hearts Mistress and what   
woman, what woman wouldn't want, secretly, to be loved by a man like   
Jareth, the Goblin King? What woman, young, old, High, Low... what   
woman wouldn't accept him into her arms, if only for a night? Some   
might feel guilt, or regret, but none would deny him. Not even you."   
  
  
'Love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave...'  
'You have no power over me...'  
  
'Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...Do you have any idea what I've been through,   
what I'd go through, what I'm guaranteed to suffer for you? Do you   
have any idea what it's like to be in love with someone who may never   
return that love?'  
  
  
"Have, have you ever known the Goblin King to love?" Hellin   
disentangled herself from Sarah's grip and bowed deeply. She   
answered, face downcast.  
  
"No Mistress Sarah. To be loved, certainly, but to my knowledge the G  
oblin King has never given his heart away. Good luck Mistress. Be   
safe and remember, all you have to do is tell them who you are.   
  
"That path may be more difficult for you than the rest of us. The   
Room of Fate tells us our future, you must define your own." Hellin   
rose and, without another word that could come back and haunt her,   
fled once again.   
  
Sarah turned and took a startled step back into her vanity. Jareth   
was before her, resplendent, achingly beautiful in a way that was   
entirely masculine. Masculine and lithe and graceful like a predator,   
a panther. He looked like some kind of demented angel, cast down from   
Heaven.   
  
His hair was as fantastic as ever, a mop of silken, feathered, gold,   
but his make up was heavier, bringing out the sharpness of his   
features and accenting his extradorinary eyes. His full lips were   
curled in his customary smirk as he bowed to her. Sarah's breath   
caught in her throat.  
  
Jareth was dressed in a silk, flowing, black poet shirt that was open   
to half way down his chest. He wore an ornate vest over it, a   
charcoal gray that was brightened with silver embroidery. His tights   
were a similar gray and were finished with knee high leather boots,   
also black. His pendant glinted dully in the bare expanse of his   
chest and she started when black gloves touched her cheek. Leather   
gloves today...  
  
"So, you're ready..." It wasn't a question and Sarah shivered.   
Jareth had been angry almost every time she had seen him since her   
return to the Labyrinth, though admittedly that hadn't been often the   
last two weeks. Today he was different... still commanding, still   
terrifying, but the danger in him was subdued, more subtle, a thing   
felt and not seen. This was Jareth as a seducer, as a charmer, as a   
politician.   
  
Sarah slipped away from his touch and cursed silently to herself as   
her traitorous hair caught itself on his fingers and clung. The smirk   
grew as he rubbed the strands, eyes glued to her face. She had almost   
forgotten this side of Jareth existed. Had almost forgotten how   
alluring he could really be... damn.  
  
"Putting on a nice show for the Sidhe Court, with this whole seducer,   
lover act?" The smirk broke and became a genuine smile of amusement   
as Jareth reclaimed his hand, gaze still directly on her.  
  
"So you begin to see the games that are played, huh little Sarah? Am   
I exuding enough overbearing charm?"   
  
"Do you ever need to truly ask that question?" The smirk returned but   
the stare hardened.  
  
"Watch your tongue Sarah." Sarah bowed and steeled herself as she   
held out her hand to her King. Jareth accepted it, and his warm hand   
slid into hers, clasped it, claimed it, supple black leather against   
pale, pale skin. The shield, the distance in his eyes diminished for   
a moment and Sarah saw, saw a flicker of uncertainty, of fear, of the   
fire that could only come from love, no matter what Hellin said, or   
Jareth did. And then the icy walls of self preservation were back,   
leaving Sarah more confused than ever, more confused and quite   
assuredly alone.   
  
Melani or Drevlyn would not, could not accompany them on this trip.   
It would put Melani's reign, and life in jeopardy. Both Dragons would   
stay in Jareth's castle. Drevlyn hoped to keep his Queen's birth a   
secret awhile longer, until the political waters of the Dragonic Realm   
were more calm, calm enough for a new born Queen with a will of iron   
to navigate anyway.   
  
"Yes Majesty," she replied finally, softly. Jareth nodded once and   
with his free hand conjured forth a magic portal, like the one he and   
Drevlyn had come through the day Melani had hatched. Sarah stared at   
the swirling vortex for a moment, transfixed, and jumped as Jareth   
tried to pull her closer to him.   
  
She looked up, trepidatious, into the Goblin King's neutral face,   
trying to sense his intentions. He smiled down at her but even then   
the smile was no thing of gentleness. The arrogance, the intensity,   
none of it was neglected in this smile, no matter how troubled Jareth's   
own eyes were.   
  
"This works a lot better if we step through together Sarah. I am, am   
not the master of portals that Drevlyn is. It wouldn't do to have to   
present you to the Sidhe Court missing an arm, or something more   
vital, hum?" When she said nothing he pulled her close enough that   
her back was braced against his broad chest, the top of her head   
tucked below his regal chin.   
  
Sarah didn't have time to scream, to resist, to feel more than a pang   
of fear at the unknown destination of that swirling portal, before, as  
one, she and Jareth, the Goblin King, her Goblin King, stepped through   
together. It snapped closed behind them. 


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Masks

AN: Been a few days huh? The next chapter should be out soon, like   
tomorrow... Was going to make one super chapter but I have a head   
ache and wanted to post something tonight. =) Thanks for the continued   
reviews... LOL And as to the length of this story... Ummm... Maybe   
around five more chapters... dunno. Don't look at me. This is the   
longest fanfic I've ever written in terms of chapters. I don't have   
any idea where all this is coming from either! LOL Hope ya'll have   
been well.  
  
Disclaimer: Hey buddy? Ever heard of sharing? Yeah that's right...   
I'm just borrowing them so bugger off! *shoos lawyer away* ;)  
  
  
***************Sacrifices: Chapter Sixteen***************  
  
  
Sarah breathed deeply, eyes squeezed violently shut, as she leaned   
against a cool smooth wall. Her head was reeling and she heard, as if   
from far away, the sounds of light revelry, music, thousands of voices  
blending together to form a kind of liquid noise that flowed over her   
skin and warmed it from the cold that had been in the portal.   
  
She jumped when Jareth's questing hand touched her elbow. Sarah   
whirled on him and shoved his chest, trying to push him back, furious   
at him for frightening her.   
  
Trying.  
  
Jareth caught her fisted hands in a grip of steel, his gloves like   
shackles. They stared at each other for half a heart beat, Jareth's   
gaze carefully neutral, Sarah's wild. The music faded from her mind.  
  
"Never, NEVER," she said, voice low, violent, "do that to me again   
without warning." Jareth pulled her closer, undeniable, until his   
nose brushed hers and his hair fell against her upraised face.  
  
"You fool," he whispered, voice no less fierce. Sarah shivered   
though. There was a force of personality in the barest whisper of his   
voice that she could never hope to match. "We've come here to prove   
your loyalty, your fealty to me. You do not reprimand your King,   
EVER, Sarah. Bite your tongue or I swear..." He left the threat   
hanging, unsaid, and it promised pain much greater than the Oubliette   
or Bog. Threat that stemmed from frustration, from a certain amount   
of fear. Jareth did not want to lose her today.  
  
She swallowed and disentangled herself from her King. Sarah stepped   
back and bowed, not prostrate, but respectful, humble, though her eyes   
burned. No one could give herself away but her. She had chosen   
Jareth and damn it, the Sidhe Court would not take her away!   
  
The Sidhe Court.  
  
The music came back like a dim roar. Sarah spun, away from Jareth,   
and looked out over the crowd of people of the balcony they stood on.   
The room was huge, a feat of architecture held up and stable with   
walls of white marble, high arches, and crystal pillars that stretched   
from the full floor to the roof... the sky...  
  
Sarah craned her head back and found that she couldn't see the   
ceiling. Gently rolling mists obscured the true ceiling but it was   
stories overhead at least. The giant room was lit by floating globes   
the size of a desk globe. They looked like ornate paper lanterns but   
gold decorated them and, they looked too fragile, even for paper.   
  
The floor itself was covered with people, with human, or almost human   
looking creatures. Sarah swallowed when she saw a being with wings   
too realistic to be part of a costume. And everyone seemed to be in   
costume. All were bedecked in finery, in flowing gowns that made   
Sarah's simple elegance seem shabby, in gold and silver and touches of   
bronze. And all wore masks.   
  
Sarah froze and turned to the Goblin King, a question on her lips,   
slight panic in her startled hazel eyes. Jareth watched her as he   
solemnly procured a delicate face mask with a sleight of hand that he   
was so good at. She looked at the glittered creation. It was a   
mockery of masks from another dance, twenty years before. It was ugly  
in a way, not grotesque, but the features were exaggerated, not   
beautiful. Not even dusted silver, not even with jewels that were   
very real sapphire glued prettily around the eye holes and temple.   
  
Another mask appeared, a mirror of this first, this time in black. It   
differed only in that it was more masculine, more regal, more, more   
Jareth.   
  
"Damn you, what's going on?" She swallowed again at Jareth's   
predatory smile. Swallowed and stepped back until her back pressed   
against the ornate rail of the balcony. The smile twitched and Sarah   
fumed. He was enjoying this, the bastard...   
  
"Come Sarah, take your present." He took a step forward and she   
cursed the fact that she couldn't back up anymore. Cured the fact   
that sometimes he still made her feel like she was fifteen.   
  
"What's all this?" she demanded with one sweep of her arm, the motion   
angrily encompassing the orchestrated chaos below them. The smile   
grew and the charm, the seduction was back again. Jareth practically   
glided forward. Sarah stood, silent, still, though trembling ever so   
slightly as the Goblin King reached up and tied the half mask on her.   
It settled, cool on her face. Jareth's hands lingered in her eager   
hair for a moment before the leather gloved fingers absently caressed   
her cheek and withdrew.   
  
She did not meet his eyes. In fact Sarah made it a point to stare   
quit pointedly at a blank part of the wall behind him, over his   
shoulder. It seemed safest. She didn't know what the hell had gotten   
into him. He had never been so commanding before.   
  
But then she had never known that he had loved her. Or that he   
claimed to love her... Sarah's hand burned and she looked down,   
looked down and closed her pained eyes once again to block out the   
sight of the angry scar, and somehow betrayed memories of Devon, of   
Melanie.   
  
She looked up after a moment of internal struggle. Jareth, masked but   
not hidden, watched her, openly staring with an air of affected   
possessiveness.   
  
"What's going on?" The question, asked a second time, sounded   
plaintive, small, even to her own ears. Funny how twenty years can   
mean so little sometimes. The smile stretched, if possible, further   
on the Goblin King's lips. Stretched and warmed into something almost   
vulgar in its intimacy. Or maybe it was the heat in his eyes that   
gave that impression. Damn him! The man wore so many masks! It was   
impossible to tell which he chose were the truth!!   
  
"Why Sarah, this is a Court, a Court of royalty, not just law and   
order. We shall attend the Judgement Session and your fate, your   
eternity shall be decided. That is the truth but first, first dear   
Sarah, there is the Ball." She was numb, unresisting, as he gently   
claimed one hand and guided her, the other gloved hand at the small of   
her back, to stair she had yet to see that the side of the balcony.   
Steps leading down into the throng of people, of beings... Of things   
that she had never even dreamed of, let alone seen.   
  
Her feet balked at the edge of the first step.   
  
Jareth paused and glanced down at her, a hint of strain, of   
exasperation cracking his veneer of suave Goblin King. "What's wrong   
little one?" Sarah didn't answer the man beside her as she stared   
down, suddenly dizzy with memories of another Ball, of different music   
and laughing, jeering faces. She was shaking and didn't even know it.  
  
She looked up in startlement when Jareth released her hand to touch   
her chin. He read the memories, and the sudden fear in her gaze and   
cursed to himself. He had not known that the Ball Room had effected   
her that violently.   
  
"Sarah... Sarah?" She blinked at her name and the shivering stopped.  
  
"I... I've never cared for dancing much, not anymore," she whispered,   
barely loud enough to be heard over the strains of music no human ear   
had ever heard before, a wild, haunting melody that promised sorrow.   
Much of the Sidhe Court did. A hiss tore itself from the Goblin   
King's lips and he answered, answered and made her look at him, willed   
Sarah to see the truth in his words, in his eyes.  
  
"I will not leave you Sarah. I will not leave you here alone. I will   
not leave..."   
  
'Without you...' The last remained unspoken, as it should. She knew   
of his heart, but she did not yet hold it. The Goblin King had been   
burned once, he would do everything in his power to avoid it happening   
again, unless it would win him her love.  
  
He saw the war on her face, the indecision. But finally, finally, her   
shoulders relaxed. Jareth smiled again as he reclaimed her hand and   
lead her slowly, regally down the stairs.   
  
It didn't look like it but every creature in the room was watching   
their descent. The smile turned hard, feral, grim.  
  
Good. Let them watch.   
  
It was traditional that only Kings and Queens, only married monarchs,   
walked down from balconies on the stairs. Every race had its own   
balcony, its own set of stairs. It made entrances that much more   
grand, having to descend from a height three stories up, and entrees   
that much easier to identify. Costume balls produced some interesting   
combinations...  
  
It had been a statement to enter as they did. Sarah wasn't aware of   
it but Jareth was. By all rights he should have called the portal to   
life towards the back of the room and entered from there. He usually   
did. He had no Queen, not yet.   
  
His mismatched eyes flickered to Sarah's proud profile. She was   
trying very hard not to be afraid. Twenty years had definitely not   
harmed her beauty, and had only deepened her maturity, her strength,   
and Jareth knew, she would need it all tonight.  
  
He should have entered from the back but this, this was infinitely   
better. They glided down the stairs together, the most powerful of   
any of the High Sidhe, the Goblin King, and the woman he prayed, with   
every thing he had, would one day indeed be his Queen.   
  
Jareth had high hopes for eternity. If she was allowed to stay.   
Unconsciously his grip on her tightened. Sarah stumbled a step with   
the sudden change and Jareth forced himself to relax. Forced himself   
to breath as the crowd at the base of the stairs parted and left them   
space. Forced himself to maintain the cold, haughty, devilish smile   
as he took both of Sarah's hands and prepared to dance the moment   
their feet hit the floor.   
  
She was his, by her promise, by his words. And Jareth protected his   
own. 


	18. Chapter Seventeen: May I Have This Dance...

AN: Yup, seventeen is here. Enjoy, my week is going to be hell so don't   
expect updates till the end of the week or next weekend. =) Thanks so   
much everyone who has stuck with this and left encouragement/ reviews.   
Have a great week!  
  
Standard disclaimers apply because I say so. LOL  
  
  
  
****************Sacrifices: Chapter Seventeen***************  
  
  
They spun together, a dance, a waltz that was more than a simple dance.   
Her heart beat with the Goblin King's as they moved, gracefully,   
smoothly, through the crowded Ball Room, a single entity, two made one   
by the hands that bound them, by the separate bodies pressed   
together. He was warm and smelled, not of cologne but of something   
more elusive, more elusive but no less fascinating. Sarah closed her   
eyes within her mask, dizzy and mad at herself for not being to pin   
point why.  
  
She felt the stares of a hundred, a thousand beings. Felt them   
watching her from masks that ranged from terrifying to fantastical.   
They watched and judged and dissected her as she danced in the Goblin   
King's arms. Sarah wanted to scream, wanted to confront this, this   
world suddenly...  
  
This place where illusion ruled.   
  
Jareth's hands tightened on her own and surprise made her gaze dart   
up, up to find him watching her with pale fire that burned from the   
darkness of his mask. The dizziness faded, sharpened all at once, and   
Jareth's smirk thinned softly.  
  
"Don't lose yourself Sarah..." His voice was a whisper, a brush across   
her mind. Damn Mr. Seducer.   
  
"Breathe..." Damn herself for listening to him. Who would have   
thought, here in this place Jareth was her ally, was the one person   
she trusted most. Sarah suddenly, desperately, wished that Melani, or   
even Drevlyn, had come.   
  
The music, which had only been background noise until now, soared   
suddenly, the melody and harmony blending in an ascent that was   
violent, wild, haunting, and beautiful enough to bring tears to   
Sarah's eyes and make her miss a beat of the dance. She licked her   
lips, trying to pull herself together, trying to block out the stares,   
the music...  
  
Wishing she could block out a too perceptive Goblin King but not quite   
able. Not quite ready to face this place alone.   
  
Sarah fixed her gaze on his shoulder and tried not to let her nerves   
show. And she hadn't even faced the Court yet...  
  
Her hair, lose, a waterfall of sable and silk, curled and traced   
ghostly patterns over Jareth's gloved hands before trailing up his   
arms. Sarah blushed behind her mask as she cursed it.   
  
"Is there a reason it always, always reacts to you?" she asked, voice   
tight. Not much could embarrass a thirty five year old woman, her   
hair caressing the Goblin King was one of the few things that might   
qualify. She did not look at Jareth as he answered, amusement in his   
rich tones.  
  
"It is simply reacting to my magic little Sarah." Sarah ground her   
teeth and wondered if Hellin would give her a haircut when she   
returned to the Labyrinth, if she returned. Her hair's seeming   
fascination with Jareth had always bothered her but it was another   
thing entirely to have no control of it in front of the Sidhe Court.   
  
"It didn't react to Evirey or Drevlyn or Melani." Silence from the   
high and mighty Goblin King. Sarah, after another minute of movement   
risked glancing up. She shivered at Jareth's unhooded stare.   
  
"Accept my answer little Sarah. You will not like my next one." Damn   
him, his gaze was half hungry, half feral, and it raised the hair on   
the back of her neck. She stilled for a moment, considering,   
weighing, and deciding that she really didn't want to hear the real   
answer.   
  
It wasn't worth it.  
  
Damn him anyway.  
  
She moved on and tried to ignore her hair, her mind lighting upon   
another question. Sarah made sure to stare at his shoulder as she   
spoke.   
  
"Why is everyone here human looking?" Jareth laughed as he spun her   
and brought her back to him a moment later.   
  
"Because Sarah, everyone is in their human forms or are humanoid to   
begin with." She felt more heat rising in her cheeks and glared holes   
in the shoulder, angry at feeling young and foolish.  
  
"I'm not stupid Jareth." A heartbeat of shared silence and the stares   
of a thousand enemies rested upon them both. Sarah corrected herself   
without being told. "King Jareth." Another heart beat of silence and   
she felt him smile.   
  
"Why human shape at all though? Why, why are you human looking? Why   
is Hellin more human looking then the Non Goblin Sidhe? Why bother?   
Isn't humanity nothing more than a posession to be fought over, toys   
to be used and discarded? Why would all of the races of the   
Underground chose to change into humans, or simply be a close   
approximation of them?" Jareth sighed.  
  
"You truly wish for a history lesson here, now?" It was Sarah's turn   
to smile. She had caught the high and mighty Goblin King by surprise.  
  
"Yes," she replied simply and tried not to sound smug. She didn't   
quite succeed.  
  
"All right then." The Goblin King was humoring her. She didn't   
really care. As long as he distracted her from the reality of the   
Sidhe Court, the Sidhe Ball. "Once, millenniums ago, all of us, those   
of the Underground and the humans Above were one race here. We were   
all once of a race called Elfin. We lived and breathed and built   
civilizations of which we are mere ghosts, shadows of.  
  
"But everything must fall, even cities, cathedrals built of crystal,   
of marble, of stone and steel. The Elfin people languished, faded,   
and in the end, broke. They split into two. Half stayed below, in   
their eternal home and half ventured into a new world, a world still   
hot from the fires of birth, Above.   
  
"From there the Elfin race changed, died. Those that went Aboveground   
became human. You lost much of your magic and all of your history but   
you remained, in spirit, in almost everything else, the race closest   
to your ancestry. When we of Underground look at you we see our past.  
  
"Great changes took place Underground. Magic ripped through our world   
and we who chose to remain would never, could never, be the same. We   
splintered, evolved. We became a dozen new races, a hundred. We grew   
new forms, harnessed new powers, we changed to match our world. We do   
not regret it.   
  
"But we respect power and the Elfin, they were very, very powerful.   
There is argument as to why but every Queen and King of the   
Underground can, or do, look almost human. The non Sidhe of each race   
are its base forms. The King and Queens, perfection.   
  
"My race, Goblins, have not strayed as far from our ancestry as some,   
if only by chance. You see me as I truly am Sarah. You see me as   
almost human but the truth is, is that I am almost Elfin, humans are   
just that much closer. The higher up on the social ladder, if you will   
forgive the cliché, the more human, the more Elfin each individual   
will appear.  
  
"In other races, like the Dragon, their forms have strayed too much   
from the beaten path but they often have magic to compensate. For   
some reason, yet another sorely argued point among our scientists and   
philosophers, most Kings and Queen of the races that are no longer   
humanoid have the power to change forms, just like Drevlyn, or Melani.  
  
"In some races only the King and Queen have the necessary magic, in   
others only the High Sidhe, and in a select few races, like Dragons,   
all do. We call that form human because, despite our best efforts,   
despite our magic, we are not Elfin. No matter how much we long for  
days of old."  
  
"Boring your newest subject?"  
  
The voice that spoke, interrupting their conversation, could draw   
blood, or start fires. It was different from Jareth's, no less   
intrusive, no less intimate, but darker in a way, colder in a way that   
had nothing to do with ice and everything to do with death. Jareth's   
voice, even in a rage, was warm with life. There was no promise of   
future in the words that slapped them both from the first conversation   
they had shared without attempted bloodshed and violence.   
  
Sarah hated it instantly.  
  
And Sarah, while hasty, did not hate many, not even the Goblin King   
who had destroyed her life with eternity.   
  
She turned in the Goblin King's arms so that she could face the being   
who spoke to them. It did not escape her notice that Jareth did not   
loosen his grip on her. Sarah's first sight of the creature ensured   
that she did not protest.  
  
It was a man, a tall, tall man, taller than the disproportionally   
elongated Unicorn Queen. He was probably almost, if not over, seven   
feet tall and dressed in an elaborate tuxedo that was, something finer   
than human made silk, and red. Sarah hadn't known that red could come   
in so many shades, in so many shades that echoed the color of blood.   
  
He wore no gloves and his hands, his skin at all, was pale, smooth,   
unblemished, white perfection. Sarah's eyes, unwilling, traveled up   
the length of a slim torso, past a high, rigid, vermilion collar, a   
chin too pointed to ever be handsome... Her gaze barely took in the   
almost feminine mask that molded too tightly to his face to hide his   
high cheekbones, his arching, black brows, or thin, smirking lips   
before instinctively centering in on a gaze that was felt more than   
known... That begged to be met, tested, tasted, studied, basked in.   
  
But she did not meet his eyes.  
  
Sarah was once a dreamer and a fool. She was no longer entirely   
neither but she remembered the harsh lessons she had learned.   
  
Nothing was what it seemed here and, and curiosity was not enough to   
make her meet the inherent danger of a Vampire's gaze.   
  
Jareth laughed softly but the sound was cruel, horrible. She was   
painfully glad that it wasn't directed at her. The being, the   
creature, the, the monster in front of them drew itself up. There was   
anger in its lithe body and Sarah was also suddenly very aware that   
Jareth's hands formed a near shield around her.  
  
"Even a human is immune to your petty charms. Losing your touch   
Draculo?" The taunt was a clear insult and Sarah had little trouble   
seeing why half the Court sought retribution from Jareth. He could be   
subtle, when he wanted to. Otherwise he could, and often chose to,   
ram raw scorn down the throats of those who offended him.   
  
A quick glance upwards found the bloodless, thing lips curled in a   
snarl of rage before, before after a second, when Jareth's mirth died   
away, a terrible smile that revealed cliched fangs that curved and   
gleamed in the ethereal golden light of the room. The Vampire King   
bowed shallowly, giving Sarah a glimpse of jet black hair, carefully   
slicked back in a tight pony tail at the base of the Vampire King's   
long neck.   
  
The creature rose and spoke again. Its voice rolled around Sarah like   
brittle knives. She didn't care for the experience. "Well met Goblin   
King. Many wondered if you would indeed be brave enough to come, or   
foolish enough to risk your kingdom for a child. A very pretty child,   
a very worthy toy, but nothing more." She felt Jareth tense and   
cursed. The tension between the two rulers was thick enough to cut   
with a knife. Standing between them was probably not the safest place   
in the world. Not that the thousand or so of other unknown beings   
that danced, indifferent, around them, like a river around a stubborn   
rock, were much better options.  
  
Thirty five was just too damn old to be fought over like a bone.  
  
"What do you want Draculo?" The Vampire laughed. It was not a   
pleasant sound. Sarah pitied the creatures that called it, him King.   
  
"Why, this is a Ball Jareth. What more would I want than a dance?"   
That was almost Sarah's undoing. Her head jerked up and, had her eyes   
lifted half an inch higher on the blood red mask... She didn't know   
exactly what a real Vampire's gaze could do but she had read enough   
books and had rather not find out. Not all of them had had happy   
endings.   
  
"You wish a dance?" The affected incredulity was an echo of Sarah's   
thoughts, though hers had a tint panic. Sarah could feel Draculo's   
smile widen as he willed her to look up. Her gaze remained firmly   
settled on the bridge of an aristocratic nose.   
  
"Yes Jareth... a dance with your lovely partner, and your proclaimed   
Queen." Jareth's body, a warmth at her back, froze at the last word.   
The damn Vampire continued, awful voice pleasant, smug even. "You   
would hardly deny me such a reasonable request, would you? What harm   
is there in a dance?" Sarah wanted to scream. Instead she willed her   
eyes tightly shut. It didn't stop what was unfolding... little but   
bloodshed would, but, it made it seem less real, less painfully real.  
  
Jareth's palpable anger was less difficult to ignore.   
  
"A dance?" She didn't know how she knew but the Vampire's impossibly   
large grin grew even more.  
  
"Nothing more," came the soft, dark reply. "If she is indeed your   
Queen."   
  
"Jareth..."  
  
"Hush Sarah..." came the instant reply. She didn't understand half of   
what was going on as Jareth whirled her suddenly aside.  
  
"I..." She looked up as he leaned close and whispered quickly in her   
ear.   
  
"Listen Sarah, don't fight this. Draculo is strong, and I already   
have enough enemies. I don't know what he wants but he's willing to   
recognize you as one of my subjects. Accept this the dance... Keep your   
eyes from his, agree to nothing, and he can't, won't harm you. Not   
while I'm here, not at the Ball." Sarah's panic grew as the warmth of   
his hands and body vanished. Jareth had slipped away into the crowd.   
  
Queen? Shit.  
  
Sarah didn't trust herself to look anywhere near the Vampire's face.   
Not while she stood there, vulnerable, alone. Damn it! Not alone.   
Jareth was still here, even if he had left her... She tried to clam   
her beating heart, temporarily left her...   
  
One pale, lifeless hand was held out, beckoning. The strange,   
frightening music was terribly loud. Sarah's heart sped up to match   
its half frantic tempo.   
  
"Coming Goblin Queen?" came the deadly, icy question. Sarah flushed   
but raised her chin slightly. Not enough to meet the strange being's   
eyes but enough, enough for defiance.   
  
With a swallow Sarah reached out and took the offered hand. It was   
cold but, Draculo's fingers were like steel. The next dance began. 


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Promises

AN: Yeah, it was a bad week, nuff said. Make my day and leave a review!   
This chapter was long in coming but longer than normal so, *shrugs*, fair   
trade. =) Hope you guys enjoy it!   
  
Standard disclaimers apply cause, well just cause. Happy now? ;)  
  
  
  
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Eighteen********************  
  
  
The girl, woman, was warmth in his cold arms. He watched her through   
a veiled gaze, saw the life that pulsed at her neck, felt her blood   
pounding like the surf against her smooth skin. Fingers slid like   
liquid from her hand and touched her wrist, felt her slightly erratic   
pulse.   
  
She feared him. Draculo could smell it radiating from her. Unseen by   
the almost Goblin Queen who stared pointedly away from his beautiful,   
sculptured, unnatural face he smiled, baring his fangs more   
prominently.   
  
He and his were not like other Sidhe, were a breed apart, even by the   
Council's loose guides. Several of the races of the Underground were   
known to Above but his, his was special. Only his people walked the   
shadow between the two worlds. Only his people were something more   
tangible than faded legends and empty tales. Only Vampires were   
something that were feared and half believed in when things went 'bump   
in the night'.   
  
Not two nights past Draculo had walked the streets of a city that held   
more life than any gathering of the Sidhe. He had stood under the   
warm sun of Aboveground. Had tasted air that was tribute to science,   
not magic. Had seen humans work and live, play and die, some by his   
hand. Had watched a child being led across the street by her mother   
while he stood, less than ten feet away.  
  
And he was a monster.   
  
Draculo did not deny that, did not expend the energy to maintain the   
façade. Above did not truly know his people, for he could bathe in   
sunlight if he wished, could drink Holy Water, could eat garlic.   
Sometimes it was better to leave the pawns their illusions though,   
they feared less that way. Draculo enjoyed fear but, desperation,   
desperation and fear, though heady, was dangerous. A cornered animal   
will often fight like a rabid one.   
  
Pawns needed their illusions, for their sanity, and the predator's   
continued dominance.   
  
But his eyes were a trap. He was impressed that the human in his arms   
remembered that much lore, and believed it enough to take legend's   
warning to heart. Was more impressed that she resisted him, even with   
her knowledge. Impressed and vaguely disquieted when she firmly,   
steadily, dragged her wrist away from his fingers.   
  
She gave him back her hand and the fear, the fear in her was still   
there but it was tempered, tempered and held in check with, with false   
bravado, with a thin veneer of clam, with strength the Vampire King   
would not have granted the slight woman. His sneer faded.  
  
He had thought Jareth a fool when he first heard of his actions and   
crimes. Now, now he was not so sure. Draculo suddenly doubted the   
wisdom of naming this human Goblin Queen, for names had power.   
Suddenly wondered if it was truly folly that had bound the human to   
Jareth's side for eternity.   
  
Draculo had seen the action as a weakness on part of the Goblin King,   
a crack in the might shield of his absolute power. And damn it, he   
was suddenly so much less sure. Had the Goblin King lost his mind,   
was he just that much more crafty then the rest of the Sidhe, or just   
that lucky? How could anyone be that incredibly lucky?  
  
"Have you enjoyed your stay in Jareth's castle?" She tensed in his   
arms and sucked breath through her clenched teeth. Darculo heard the   
sound more than saw the action.   
  
"My... My King has been most hospitable."   
  
Draculo laughed as he suddenly spun the almost Goblin Queen from his   
arms and dipped her. They paused for a moment, Sarah's head so low to   
the ground her dark hair brushed it, his nose a mere breadth from   
hers.   
  
And in that instant she met his eyes.   
  
There was a moment of shock, surprise, and pain as Darculo saw his  
opportunity and took it.   
  
******************************************************************  
  
Sarah cursed herself silently as she hung, clasped in a Vampire King's   
arms, held frozen, immobile, trapped in eyes... eyes that burned. She   
felt them reaching inside of her, felt them raking through memories,   
thoughts, emotions buried so long ago. Felt herself lost in eyes that   
were black with no pupil, night with no moon or stars, no sun rise in   
sight.   
  
Her heart pounded slow, loud, in her tight chest. And in that eternal   
moment Sarah relived half of her life. Relived her mother, Toby's   
birth, Jareth in all his terrifying glory, college, Devon, Melanie,   
Evirey and...  
  
Melani, Dragon Queen, bloomed half formed in her mind and Sarah   
suddenly knew what the Vampire King was after.   
  
Sarah screamed and wrenched herself away.   
  
The room spun slowly and seemed to stop. Sarah fell to the marbled,   
polished ground of the Ball, her beautiful dress crumpled around her,   
sable hair pooled behind it like a thick veil. The music faltered   
once and stopped altogether as the thousands of beings in the room   
stilled, faceless eyes staring at her from behind convoluted masks.   
  
She felt their disdain, their curious disregard for her like a   
physical blow. But she did not fold. Sarah was not a child.   
  
Twenty years ago she would have wept, shamed herself, before them,   
before these creatures of politics and magic. Before these masters of   
intrigue. She would have been the pawn, the fool, they wished her to   
be.   
  
But she was a woman, grown and strong. She had lived for thirty five   
years and was promised to live for, forever. She had defeated the   
Goblin King. She would not cower, she would not quail. She would not   
show weakness, not to these beings, these creatures who she would   
stand before and demand that her wishes be respected.   
  
Demand that she be bound to her promises. Bound to the once defeated   
Goblin King.   
  
Pale hands clenched into fists as she glared at the Vampire King's   
boots. Her gaze traveled upward as she steeled her nerve. She rested   
it on the arch of his strong nose, defiant. She could feel his   
unease, his surprise.   
  
If looks could kill.  
  
The silent crowd parted with a whisper of noiseless sound. Jareth,   
Goblin King, her King, strode through the Ball Room. He stopped   
beside her, his own boots in the corner of his vision. Sarah felt,   
more than saw, his extended hand.   
  
She stared at Draculo an instant longer before she turned away and met   
Jareth's eyes. Sarah swallowed at the, at the sorrow there, at the   
unarticulated cry for forgiveness in his strange, strange gaze. He   
had not meant, had not meant for her to be here, alone and forlorn,   
the center of attention in a Court she feared.   
  
She accepted the apology in her King's pained eyes as she took his   
gloved hand. It was warm, and that was enough.   
  
*****************************************************************  
  
Sarah clung to the front of Jareth's half open shirt, head buried in   
his shoulder. She hated herself in that instant, as the eerie music   
began to play once more and movement took the staring dancers away   
from her. The Vampire King melted away into the crowd. She and   
Jareth stood like a rock in the middle of the tide, immune to the   
eddies and currents.   
  
Hated herself for the weakness that made her cling to the man she had   
so passionately hated twenty years ago, the man she had sacrificed   
herself to in order to save the only child she had ever thought of as   
hers. Hated herself for the tears that crept, unwilling, from   
clenched eyes. Hated herself for the fear that made her shake,   
tremble from shock in the Goblin King's strong arms. For accepting   
the comforting feel of Jareth stroking her tangled, half alive hair,   
for allowing him to whisper soothing, meaningless words in her ear.   
  
Hated herself for almost giving up the beautiful, beautiful Dragons up   
to the man who was their sworn mortal enemy.   
  
She and the newly hatched Dragon Queen had shared many conversations   
of late. Sarah remembered the racial fear in Melani's mind voice when   
she had 'spoken' of the Vampires, when she had spoken of Draculo. The   
little gold Queen's birth was being kept a secret, for now.   
  
Dragonic politics were rocky as it were and Melani's claim to power   
were weak as of yet. In time, in time she would gather the strength   
to be the best Queen the Dragons had had in centuries. Drevlyn had   
confided in Sarah that he had never heard of power so great in one so   
young, let alone see it.   
  
But if Draculo knew of the little Queen's existence then he would do  
everything in his own considerable power to kill her, before she   
became the Queen she was destined to be. Before she made her people   
great once more.  
  
"Jareth?" Hated herself for sounding so damned lost and afraid. His   
hand stopped for a moment. Sarah could feel it poised above her hair.   
  
"Yes little Sarah?" She sighed and buried herself deeper in his arms,   
not caring about the implications of his embrace, only needing,   
desperately, to feel some measure of reassurance, of safety, to   
distance herself from Draculo's frightening presence.  
  
"Is, is Draculo powerful?" Jareth hissed softly.  
  
"Not more so than me," he answered finally, after an uncomfortable   
moment of silence.   
  
"But enough," she continued bitterly, voice muffled by his shirt,   
"enough to make keeping me very costly." More silence before...  
  
"Yes Sarah."   
  
"Enough so that you would be weak, weaker than normal." The hand   
hovered for a moment before stroking her hair once more.  
  
"Yes." The last answer was short.   
  
"Enough so that, so that you could not protect Melani or Drevlyn."   
Sarah felt Jareth's heart beat quicken as she pressed her cheek   
against the heat of his chest. Felt his proud body stiffen and   
still.   
  
She swallowed bravely when insisting fingers touched her chin and made   
her meet his sharp, questioning face. The Goblin King stared at her   
tear stained face and tried, for the life of him, to figure out where   
she was going with her conversation.   
  
"I will not let them have you Sarah." She swallowed again at the   
simple unadorned truth in those words, in his unshakable resolve.   
Swallowed and shivered at the truth he did not speak here, tonight,   
but that lay raw and real between them. Her scarred hand burned and   
Sarah tucked it, curled, to her body before she broke away from   
Jareth's fingers.   
  
She did not leave his arms. Draculo's memory was too stark for that.   
His presence still felt.   
  
"Promise me this," she said softly, eyes glued to the Goblin's King's   
shoulder once more. "Promise me," Sarah continued before she could   
falter, "that no matter what, no matter who, who tries to claim me,   
that you'll let them. That you'll let me go if the fight proves too   
great.   
  
"Promise me that you will not fail Dragon's Trust and your dearest   
friends for a servant." Jareth growled and leaned low to whisper   
harshly in her ear.  
  
"You are not my Queen Sarah. You have no right to tell me what I can   
and cannot do. If I wish to fight with all that I have to keep you   
then that is my choice. I cannot baby sit the Dragons forever! And   
you are more than a damn servant!" Pain, pain in his fierce voice.   
Sarah heard it and shook at it.   
  
But she did not back down.   
  
She twisted in his arms and faced him once again, face carefully   
neutral, eyes heated. "You're right," she spat suddenly, frightened   
and angry at having to be so brave, at having to risk herself at   
Evirey's or Draculo's hands. "I cannot order you Jareth but I can   
tell you this. If Melani dies because of your actions or lack there   
of, because of me, I will hate you. I will hate you like you have   
never seen me hate. And I will hate myself and the eternity you gave   
me, forced upon me, will be hell."   
  
Jareth, the Goblin King, stared down at her, mismatched eyes wide,   
surprised. "You mean that, don't you?" Sarah sighed and closed her   
eyes, tired, weary from her trials already. She sagged against him   
and Jareth held her because he didn't know what else to do.   
  
"Yes," she whispered and started to weep.   
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Sometimes there were things to be said in times like this.  
  
Sometimes there were things to be said but no more words to say them.  
  
This was one of those times.  
  
Sarah clung to Jareth as they danced, moved finally by the haunting   
melodies that entranced creatures from a hundred different races and   
cultures, her face once again buried against her chest as she ignored   
those beings from a hundred different races and cultures.   
  
They both pretended not to see her tears. Sarah's hand burned. She   
ignored it as well.   
  
She hadn't said that she loved him but Jareth didn't care. She let   
him hold her, expected him to hold her and right now that was enough.   
The Sarah of old would never have been strong enough to admit when she   
needed to be held.  
  
Screw promises made, he would lose his kingdom before he lost her,   
this precious, precious thing. He, the immortal Goblin King, would   
die first. Would die willingly.   
  
Would let the Dragons fade if it kept her safe.   
  
He kissed the top of her silken head and Sarah let him do that too,   
ignorant of any world but the one in his arms. Jareth glanced up and   
caught Draculo's masked stare from across the room. He was King of   
the Goblins. He was above the Vampire King's magic.   
  
Draculo nodded from across the room and tilted his head in bland   
mutual acknowledgment, sneer back on cold, pale lips, amusement   
glinting in dead black eyes that seemed stark against the blood red of   
his molded mask.   
  
Jareth's hold on Sarah tightened as he straightened and smiled lazily   
back. Trumpets sounded, loud, in the Ball. The music stopped for the   
second time that evening as the Lord of the Court appeared from the   
balcony directly across from Jareth's own. The King of the Phoenixes   
had arrived.  
  
Let the fight begin. 


	20. Chapter Nineteen: The Phoenix King

AN: Well this is the longest bloody story I've ever written. =)   
  
Hooded Crow: Thanks you *so* much for pointing out about my little   
mix up... I did truly mean Drevlyn. Devalt would be from another   
story. Let's just say having more than ten stories going on at   
once is not a real good idea. ;) It should be all fixed now... LOL  
  
Glad you all thought Draculo was creepy, despite his cheesy name   
(yes I know its cheesy but sue me, I couldn't think of anything   
better). The reviews have been heartening, wonderful, and kind of   
scary. I usually don't feel quite to pressured to write *good*   
stuff! hehe This chapter is pretty much a short filler. The Judgment   
Session starts in twenty most definitely and Kimi gets to see who I   
write her out to be (had to admire her guts).  
  
I don't own em.   
  
  
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Nineteen****************  
  
  
The King of the Phoenixes glided down the stairs and, as one, the   
gathered species of the assembled beings slowed and stopped, their   
masked faces turned upwards to golden light and the coming of their   
Lord.  
  
"What, who is that?" Sarah breathed, awed despite herself. The   
strange, commanding man, was, was beautiful, blindingly beautiful in a   
white medieval styled tuxedo. His skin was pale, almost opaque, and   
he gleamed, no glowed with, with fire. You could see it, feel the   
breath of heat that came from flames that were locked, barely   
restrained, inside the lithe, confident form. His hair didn't even   
try for restraint. Flames soared to life from his scalp and burned   
upwards, nearly a foot tall, pale, white fire. Fire that seared   
instead of simply burning.   
  
It was the eyes that impressed Sarah most though. She found them from   
across the immense room, found them and stared unabashedly. Jareth's   
eyes were, were human, strange, but human. Melani and Drevlyn's eyes   
were odd as well but she had little trouble reading the emotions in   
them.   
  
Staring into the man's eyes were like looking into jewels of purest   
sapphire. They were large, vivid, a startling azure blue that stood   
out against his smooth, white skin. He had no pupils. They were like   
a cloudless summer day, wide, inviting, a sky framed by flames.  
  
"That is Cadreth, King of the Phoenixes, Lord of the Sidhe Court."   
Sarah tore her gaze away long enough to glance back and see Jareth's   
slight curl of a smile.   
  
"Phoenix..." The curl widened and Sarah swallowed with the sudden   
realization of her precarious position in the Goblin King's arms. She   
stiffened and his damn smile grew as her hair, oblivious to the   
discomfort that had come when shock had worn off and her tears had   
been chased away, danced up his muscular arms and touched his own gold   
locks, fine sable against baby blonde. She bit her bottom lip and   
continued bravely enough.  
  
"Lord of the Court?" The smile faded.   
  
Jareth sighed as his intense gaze left her questioning face and   
flickered back to the King. Cadreth had reached the bottom of his   
stairs. Mismatched gaze met bejeweled gaze for a moment and Jareth   
inclined his head in silent recognition.   
  
Of all the rulers in all of the Underground he respected few more than   
the Phoenix King. Jareth did not always agree with, or support him,   
but his respect never dimmed. Jareth held more magic then any other   
being in the Court, Cadreth held the most power. He was strong enough  
to claim the title Lord of the Court.  
  
Was powerful enough to walk down from his balcony unaccompanied by a   
Queen.  
  
Was Jareth's only match, and only an equal here, at the Sidhe Court.   
Where politics were a form of war all their own. In reality Jareth was   
King, superior, of all. He answered Sarah's question, arms   
unconsciously tightening around her as he watched Cadreth's descent   
and subsequent progress.  
  
"Yes Sarah, Lord of the Court. He rules here, presides over us all   
while we are under this roof. He is in charge of the Judgment   
Session." She went deathly still in his arms. The Goblin King   
glanced down at her and quickly looked away. She was pale, frightened   
for all to see.  
  
The crowd of masked beings parted before the Phoenix King's sure, even   
strides. Cadreth was unmasked, he had no use for Balls.   
  
The Phoenix King stopped in front of them both, the errant Goblin King   
and curious immortal human. Jareth disentangled himself from his hold   
on Sarah and stepped forward and slightly in front of his servant, in   
front of his subject. Cadreth's grave blue eyes danced   
disconcertingly before the Lord of the Court bowed shallowly. Jareth   
returned the gesture, neither granting nor denying the man before him  
any more respect then that granted to him, the Goblin King.   
  
Jareth's own grotesque mask fell from his angular face and disappeared   
with a sleight of hand aided by magic as he straightened stiffly. The   
King of the Phoenixes smiled and it was dazzling. Few women, even   
Queens, had been able to resist that kind of perfection, of beauty.   
  
But Sarah was not a Queen. And she had always been a mother before a   
woman.   
  
Sometimes fear was not necessarily a bad thing.  
  
Sarah stood behind him, away from Cadreth's mesmerizing presence.   
Phoenixes were not Vampires but they were hypnotic just the same.   
Dangerous when the interest was piqued, and Cadreth was interested in   
the human who had caused such drastic actions in the ever aloof and   
controlled Goblin King.   
  
Interested in the once mortal who had bested the Lord of the Court's   
better.   
  
He did not speak or threaten though. He was not as foolish as   
Draculo. He wasn't as stupid. Cadreth did not attempt to ensnare the   
human woman any farther. The time for that would come later.   
  
"Jareth, King of the Goblins," the Phoenix King intoned in a rich,   
rolling, light baritone that filled the huge, silent Ball Room, "I,   
Cadreth, Phoenix King, Lord of the Court, do call your Judgment   
Session into trial. The Ball is over. Let those not strong enough to   
retain their power leave. There will be no room for pawns tonight."   
  
The last was a dig, a subtle jibe with multiple meanings and layers.   
The Court was about to find out if the almost proclaimed Goblin Queen   
was a pawn or not. Jareth stood, still as a perfect alabaster statue,   
until Cadreth turned his heel and bared his back to Jareth. The   
Goblin King accepted the implied trust in that gesture, and knew its   
implicit limits.   
  
The Phoenix King held out one imperious hand before him. The   
watching crowd backed warily away. The hand extended and contracted   
in a violent fist as it twisted and turned. The air before the   
Phoenix King tensed, congealed, and flared into a pool of darkness, a   
gate that buzzed with power and magic which stretched nearly ten feet   
by ten feet, a hole without light, waiting, expectant.   
  
The Goblin King acknowledged the abilities that the Lord of the Court   
held over him. Portals were not one of Jareth's strong points. But   
then again, few could shape change as easily as he.   
  
Jareth stepped back as Cadreth went through his portal without another   
word. The crowd pulsed forward, expectant, milling, waiting, their   
sneering, their laughter, their cruelty obscured by their masks.   
  
But the masks were coming off now.   
  
The Goblin King held his hand out to Sarah. She stared at him for a   
moment, and her searching eyes were wide. Jareth forced his features   
to smooth, soften, forced his frigid eyes to warm for her, to  
reassure, to plead for cooperation just this once. He was her King.   
  
Sarah took Jareth's gloved hand after a moment of hesitation. He   
squeezed it once before reaching up with his free hand to untie her   
mask. It fell away, leaving her looking human, vulnerable, frail.   
And yet, despite her fear, Sarah was not a child, was not someone to   
cower. She had faced him in his bitterest rages. She would not bow   
in meek submission to the Sidhe Court.   
  
He said nothing, only watched as she took several calming breaths, as   
she visibly steeled herself, as she straightened. Waited for her to   
regain her composure before guiding them forward.   
  
Sarah Williams and the Goblin King stood before the portal that would   
lead them to the Judgment Session that would decide both their   
futures. Her eyes, her beautiful amber eyes sought and found his. It   
was a new experience, to gain strength from the Goblin King's   
presence.   
  
It was not entirely a comfortable feeling.   
  
Jareth's full lips twisted into a rendition of a sardonic, bitter   
smile that held little amusement. "And to think, twenty years ago   
you thought I was the biggest monster in the Underground, in your   
world."   
  
Sarah shuddered at the harshly whispered words but did not pull away.   
Instead she let her eyes be drawn to the swirling darkness that   
beckoned, a mere step away from them, a mirror that reflected nothing,  
hinted at nothing.   
  
Her hand slipped from the Goblin King's. She glanced back once, over   
her shoulder, and her mind crystallized and burned the image of Jareth   
standing there, framed against the splendor of the Sidhe Court's Ball   
Room, surrounded by peers that would never be his equal, more   
beautiful then even the honestly entrancing Phoenix King. His sharp   
features and white blonde hair seemed softer in the spill of golden   
light emitted from the delicate lanterns and lights that floated   
lazily in the air high above them.  
  
The contrast of his fair skin and dark, splendid clothing was less   
noticeable too, muted. Sarah shivered suddenly and clutched her   
scarred hand to her breast, not just unsettled by Jareth's alienness,   
but by, by the idea that she was bound to such unearthly   
otherworldliness. That she had given up PTA and Burger King for   
this. That she had sacrificed her life so that the child she cared   
for with all her wary heart wouldn't grow up thinking this place, this   
utterly fantastic and inhospitable place was normal.   
  
Sarah answered him, replied, voice soft but no less clear. "Twenty   
years ago I didn't have this good of an imagination. But you were   
never a monster, not to me. A villain, an obstacle, but never a   
monster, god help me. Never a monster."   
  
And then Sarah turned her back on her King; those slim, bared   
shoulders square, and walked through the unknown portal by herself.   
  
She was anything but a child, even if she still acted childishly.   
  
Jareth stared after her for a heart beat before the twisted smile   
broke and was replaced with something no less cynical but much more   
genuine. The Goblin King followed his subject through the portal.  
Followed the woman he had sworn not ten minutes past would be his   
future Queen.   
  
The milling crowd waited a heart beat before those worthy to   
participate in the power struggle that would go on this day shed their   
own masks and followed.   
  
The Judgment Session had begun. 


	21. Chapter Twenty: Enemies and an Ally

AN: *blearily salutes everyone* I'm tired. But I posted. Rah, rah, go me. =) Enjoy, review,   
sleep. Till next time... PS: Kimi: you *did* ask... ;)  
  
Disclaimers: ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz *mumbles incoherently* ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  
  
  
  
************************** Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty ********************************  
  
  
They stood, two against their world, on the plain black marbled floor. The Court was seated   
in tiers that surrounded them in the large room that served as host to the Court's more   
political activities, like Judgment Sessions. The crystal pillars were the same. Cadreth,   
Phoenix King, Lord of the Court was seated in a raised granite box that served as a desk, like   
a Judge, though his presence was nothing but Kingly. The flames of his hair flared and lit   
the already bright room lighter.  
  
There was no soft golden illumination here though. Harsh light showed very clearly the human,   
and inhuman, unmasked faces of the Side Court. Sarah tried not to look too closely as she   
sidled unconsciously closer to her King.   
  
"They sure set out to intimidate, don't they?" Jareth, who had been staring impassively at   
the seated crowd, smiled condescendingly and glanced down at the immortal human who stood so   
much closer to him then was necessary. The cold cruelty in the smile wasn't directed at her   
though and in that instant Sarah was suddenly very aware of just how powerful, how terribly   
arrogant, how great of a King, Jareth was.   
  
He was too damn proud but it was pride that was earned... Earned through the fact that the   
Goblin King was the best in his, their, world, was the first, the brightest in everything.   
The man standing at her side had never bowed, had never been bowed, had never done anything   
against his will.  
  
He was not untested or untried though.  
  
Sarah had lived through enough to see life's scars, and, Jareth had lived longer then most.   
Immortality tended to do that to people. The man standing at her side had never lost...  
  
Never lost anything until he had allowed her into his realm on a whim. Until he had granted   
her demand to win her brother back from that instant of foolishness. Until he had   
underestimated the mortal child who had danced through his hell, played his games, and won.  
  
She felt sick at how great her 'triumph' had really been. Not shamed, not regretful, for   
Toby, Toby had never been meant for the Goblin King. She had done no less then what he, by   
his own selfish actions, had forced her to do.   
  
But Sarah was not proud of his defeat. Was not proud of tarnishing the demented angel of   
her dreams and nightmares. If he had been destined to fail she would have vastly preferred   
for him to not have learned humility at her hands. At her very human hands. They clenched,   
unnoticed, at her sides, as Jareth answered her.  
  
"Yes, little Sarah, they certainly do. Do they succeed?" She surprised him by flashing   
a dazzling smile.  
  
"After my first trip through your Kingdom, very little has ever intimidated, or impressed   
me." Jareth's eyes narrowed for a heart beat, and in that instant they stood apart from   
the expectant room, from their future, their destiny, their fate, no matter what it would   
be.   
  
"Feeding my vanity?" The question was harmless, the undercurrents in it were not. Sarah   
squared her jaw and smiled again, softer, more honest.  
  
"Granting my King his due, and the truth. Don't let it go to your head." Jareth chuckled,   
low, and the sound warmed something in the pit of her stomach. Sarah cursed the Goblin   
King silently to herself.  
  
"I shall take your advice to heart." Sarah shivered and their spell was broken as Cadreth   
rose. The Phoenix King addressed the assembled beings as he rose in one fluid motion and   
spoke.  
  
"Jareth, Goblin King, has been called before you all to answer to his peers' accusations.   
He stands before you for the crime of bringing a grown woman to this world and granting   
her immortality. His accuser is Evirey, Queen of the Unicorns, who has demanded this   
Judgment Session be heard.   
  
"The Court has now officially granted her demand. Will a representative of the faction who   
will seek a punishment upon the Goblin King please step forward?" Sarah swallowed, suddenly   
afraid.  
  
"What's going on Jareth?" He ignored the question and lack of title as his mismatched gaze   
raked the rows of assembled Sidhe. And there, from the back of the highest tier, Evirey rose.   
Damned Unicorn always had to make an entrance. She had learned from the best.   
  
Jareth's sudden grin was terrifyingly feral.   
  
Evirey gathered her magic and expended it in a brilliant flash that sent her gliding from her   
seat, through the solidified air, until her thick, hoof like feet touched down gently on the   
marble floor next to Cadreth's raised dais. Her thin silver gown fluttered and stilled,   
settling to reveal a shapely body of perfect, white skin. Evirey smiled widely at the Goblin   
King, sharp face settled into smugness.   
  
Jareth's eyes narrowed dangerously. Her lesson in humility had gone too long untaught. That   
ended now. His roving eyes went back to the crowd.   
  
Jareth's gaze flickered and passed Daculo... The Vampire King had played his cards for the   
information concerning the Dragons with mixed results. But he had already named Sarah Goblin   
Queen. He would not, could not, stand and deride them before his peers, not after the Ball.   
  
Apparently Evirey had missed that small change in her plans. The smile on her full mouth   
tightened and stretched with effort as Draculo stayed seated.   
  
Her strongest ally had betrayed her. But then, Jareth always had more than one enemy.   
  
Tortar stood after a moment of thunderous silence. That was unexpected, but then, Jareth had   
never truly expected Evirey to push it this far.  
  
"Jareth, who is that?" The fear in Sarah's voice drew his attention for a moment. He   
answered absently, though his reply gave no reassurance.  
  
"That's Tortar little Sarah, Troll King."  
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
The Troll King floated, though slower, from his seat to a position by the Unicorn Queen's   
side. He was... he was masculine but with none of the seductive, dangerous, deadly beauty   
that marked the Unicorn, Goblin, and Vampire Monarchs. He was not ugly but beauty had   
never brushed his cheeks.   
  
Tortar was about Evirey's height and stocky, muscled, thick limbed. He radiated a solid,   
competent aura and wore some kind of ceremonial armor that was a meld of precious metals   
and fine leather and furs. His skin was dark olive, curling, close cut hair a sable that   
matched Sarah's own. His face and features were square with full lips, a Roman's broken,   
noble nose, and a brooding brow.  
  
His eyes like Sarah's as well, a warm brown that concealed hidden depths, of rage, of pain,   
of bloodthirstiness. Trolls were not a peaceful race and Tortar ruled them well.   
  
Those mirror like eyes were intent on her own. Sarah swallowed at the deliberate force in   
them and wished suddenly, that she had read more books on Trolls. He spoke and his voice   
was a low bass, loud without seeming out of place in this silent room of fate.   
  
"I will represent Evirey's faction." Cadreth, Phoenix King, inclined his head in   
acknowledgment.   
  
"Will a representative for the Goblin King's defense please step forward?"   
  
No one in the crowded room moved.   
  
"Jareth?" Sarah's question was a whisper of terrified sound. Despite her best intentions   
of bravery she edged closer to the Goblin King as the weight of a thousand hostile glares   
descended across her bar shoulders.   
  
Despite her best intentions, one hand sought and slipped into Jareth's gloved one. He   
squeezed her fingers, a warm, comforting pressure, sharp face still titled upwards to watch   
the waiting Sidhe Court. Sarah's hair danced up his own broad shoulders and twined around   
his arms.   
  
For once she didn't mind, much. She started to speak again as the painful moment stretched   
but Jareth fingers from his free hand touched her lips, stilled the painful questions,   
muffled her fears.   
  
"Shh," he said softly. "Wait Sarah, just wait."  
  
And then, and then a being rose from those still seated. Sapphire power pooled and then   
flowed, bringing the creature through the ranks of the assembled, then down, down, down,   
until bare feet settled upon the cool marble floor.   
  
She was, was almost human looking... She was tall at what was nearly six feet, skin pale,   
pale, but still peach. She was slender, waif like, despite her height, almost ethereal.   
The burgundy dress that flattered her form grounded her in its rich color and velvet cloth.   
It was the most tasteful article of clothing Sarah had yet to see worn Underground.   
  
White blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, accenting the cerulean eyes that peered,   
shockingly blue, through wisps of bangs and sharpening features that would otherwise be   
soft. A muted locket, in the shape of a star, was the creature's only ornamentation.  
  
Besides her wings that is.   
  
Iridascent, opaque, the wings stretched, like any good fairy tale illustration, from   
between her shoulder blades. They fluttered, even in the still room, as they stretched, a   
riot of shimmering color, nearly nine feet from tip to tip, three feet wide, like a   
beautiful, fragile butterfly.   
  
The woman took several gliding steps until she stood at Jareth and Sarah's side. The spell   
of the Troll King was broken as Sarah watched the slight woman before her, entranced,   
despite herself.   
  
One pale hand lifted and brushed the heat of Sarah's cheek. The being smiled and, there   
was nothing to fear in it... nothing to see except the pull of rose colored lips across   
perfect, even teeth. Teeth that had two petite fangs.   
  
Sarah blinked as the being dropped her hand and turned away, towards the Phoenix King.   
Jarerth had become an unmoving, unbreathing, source of warmth at her side. She licked   
dry lips.  
  
"What, who is that?"   
  
Jareth drew her against him suddenly, a movement she would have protested if she had   
sensed his intent, but once secure in iron like arms Sarah only took a deep breath and   
accepted the sanctity, the illusion of safety as long as it lasted. The Goblin King   
rested his chin on the top of her silken head.   
  
"Won't this kind of display hurt us?" She felt more then heard Jareth sigh before he   
replied simply, voice level...  
  
"No."   
  
"Who...?" Relieved laughter bubbled in the Goblin King's chest as he clutched his prize,   
his subject, the woman he had given his love to, closer, reveling in the feel of her in   
his arms, no matter what circumstances had forced her into them...  
  
"That is... Her name is not pronounceable in human form, or with a human throat, but,   
call her Kym, Faerie Queen." Sarah twisted in Jareth's arms, trying to find his eyes,   
but the Goblin King was too tall.  
  
"But..." she finally answered after a heart beat of confusion, "I've seen Faeries before,   
in the Labyrinth before, remember? They looked nothing like Her!" This time a deep   
throated chuckle escaped and Sarah jumped at the sound, and at the purr it made in Jareth's   
lean chest, which was pressed to her own back.  
  
"Those Sarah were Non Sidhe Faeries. They live in my Labyrinth yes, but they are no   
less Hers," his voice made gentle mocking of the emphasis placed on the pronoun, "and   
she is Queen. Queen and the oldest ruling monarch in the Underground. Perhaps things   
are not a bleak as they seemed..."   
  
Kym, Faerie Queen, addressed the patient Lord of the Court, her voice honey. "I will   
defend the Goblin King." Cadreth inclined his regal head again, hair flickering.   
  
"Then we shall begin in earnest." 


	22. Chapter Twenty One: Games Upon Games

AN: Whew, was determined to make this one chapter, even if it was long! I'm getting   
so damn close to the end of this thing its driving me crazy... Okay, a few more chapters   
but I can *see* the end! Yeah!! LOL Drop me a review and keep me motivated!!  
  
Disclaimer: Go read another chapter for one...  
  
  
************************** Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty One **************************  
  
  
"You were given leave to take a babe, a child, not a woman! What makes you exempt from   
our laws Jareth? If you stand apart, if you refuse to bind yourself to the Court that   
rules us all then where does that leave us Goblin King? With dissension, revolt,   
revolution, anarchy, destruction!   
  
"With death and fire and loss of immortal life! You have overstepped your bounds and   
you must be brought to heel. He must be used as an example, as a display of the Sidhe   
Court's power for, without power we have not the right, or the will, to rule." Evirey   
strode as she spoke. She was a great orator... learned, bright, passionate.   
  
The Unicorn Queen paced the marble floor as she spoke, her hands waving animately as   
she alternated between accusation addressed to Jareth, and entreaty directed at the   
silent Court. She looked, even to Sarah's trained eye, earnest, sincere, the perfect   
eptiome of truth, justice.   
  
Bull shit, all of it. Perhaps...   
  
Sarah was not a thing, a toy, a bone to be argued over. She knew that revenge, that   
vengeance, drove the indignant Unicorn Queen. That underneath her veneer of wounded   
Underground patriotism, legality, and civility lurked the conniving, cruel being who   
had appeared before Sarah in Jareth's castle. Somewhere lurked that dark dream of   
the Goblin King's demise.   
  
That own fire had burned, however briefly, in Sarah own innocent eyes once. Before   
the amber had become jaded. Before she had been willing to see the gray inherent in   
the world, and in every man, woman, and, and monster, King, that she met. Before she   
had stopped being able to see so clearly, if erroneously, what was right and what was   
wrong, without a shadow of a doubt.  
  
When she had first trod the trails of the Labyrinth. She had been armed with naievete,   
youth, and righteousness then.   
  
None of that remained now.   
  
But, Evirey did not hate, did not hold petty grievances and plottings to her heart because   
she was an ignorant child. The Unicorn Queen sought Jareth's downfall because she could.   
Because he stood in her way. Because he could not be bent and bowed. Because he refused   
to yield to any, let alone spoiled Evirey.   
  
And yet, there was a seed of truth in her words. The Unicorn Queen used them because   
they were handy, convincing. Evirey did not believe what she said, or if she did, she   
didn't care, not really. But it did not make them any less true.  
  
From what she had seen of the Underground Sarah had found it to be a dangerous, trecherous   
place. Beautiful yes, certainly beautiful, her eyes flickered to Jareth who stood beside   
her now. Flickered and traced the regal profile of his now familiar face. Beautiful for   
all eternity, vibrant, wild, reckless, but no less dangerous, no less perilous.  
  
And the rule of the Sidhe Court seemed very tenuous indeed. All the monarchs she had   
seen, every single one, had been so proud, so arrogant... so steeped with traditions of   
pain and torture and the willingness to do anything to get what they wanted. It was a   
wonder that a Court, that a government, no matter how loosely constructed, was able to   
form at all before the separate races ripped themselves to pieces.  
  
No doubt the only reason the Court had lasted as long as it had was because the strongest   
monarchs had submitted, if in name only, to the Court's laws. They had allowed themselves   
to be governed and so the weaker had followed suite.   
  
But if Jareth stepped away, if the Goblin King outright refused to obey the basic, direct   
laws of his world? Then he paved the way for others to follow suite. He opened Pandora's   
proverbial box.  
  
It was truth... all of it. He had already broken a rule by bringing her here, another   
by making her immortal... but all that could be remedied if Jareth allowed himself to   
chastised. If he obeyed whatever the Court ruled here today in response to his actions.  
  
Sarah swallowed and tore her stare away from the Goblin King. Wild eyes found the cold,   
endless depths of the Phoenix King. The Lord of the Court held Sarah's eyes for a moment   
and the human immortal read, read a terrible sadness there in those azure depths, and a   
reflection of certain knowledge that mirrored her own revelations.  
  
The Phoenix King was watching his world unravel before him as Evirey spoke, as she rallied   
supporters, both ardent and reluctant to her side, the Troll King a silent and solid pillar   
of support behind her. As she whipped the Sidhe Court to a frenzy with her words and ill   
used truths that would be silenced, quelled, satisfied, only with the Goblin King's fall.  
  
And Cadreth was powerless to stop it.   
  
Sarah tore her gaze away but it was too late. She could see the scene playing out with   
horrific clarity in her mind even as her sable hair fell forward to obscure her down cast   
face with a curling waterfall...  
  
Evirey and Tortar winning the Sidhe Court over with their fiery words... Their demand that   
justice be served, that Sarah be handed over to another monarch... Kym, Jareth, and Sarah's   
pleas falling on deaf ears... Jareth's subsequent anger... The moment when the Court tried   
to separate the Goblin King from the woman he had claimed to love in a soliquoy meant for no   
one but heard by her... From the woman he had held not an hour before as she wept and   
railed... From the woman he had embrace but minutes ago as the Faerie Queen risked all   
that she had to rise and stand by their side...  
  
And the slow but eventual collapse of all the order that the Underground knew as Jareth   
defied them.  
  
"He brought a woman against our laws and made her immortal against her nature! Without   
consent or permission the Goblin King added another member to our world and he must answer   
for it! He claims her as his... He claims that this human immortal, one of us forever now   
because of his foolish actions, belongs to him. He has the nerve to break our laws by   
bringing her, then by attempting to hide her presence, and now by claiming what should   
have never been!"  
  
Sarah stared blindly down at her clenched fists. Her ears heard what was being said, her   
body felt the still calming presence of the so far silent Faerie Queen and Jareth's fuming   
wrath that existed like a small sun, warmth at Sarah's side. But her mind barely grasped   
the words pouring out of Evirey's curled, devious, lips.  
  
Hands, pale, trembling slightly, uncurled slowly. Sarah stared at them, as if seeing them   
for the first time, and couldn't contain a shudder that ran through her slim frame as her   
imagination painted the palms red, scarlet, bleeding vermilion, the blood of a thousand   
races on them, covering even her terrific scar.  
  
Sarah was not High Sidhe for she was not arrogant enough to believe that her presence   
could be enough alone to destroy the Underground. But with Jareth losing his temper and   
what little tact he used when dealing with politics then together, together they may be   
very able to start a war, or, heaven forbid, wars.   
  
Sarah had demanded at the Ball, had wanted a promise from her King, that faced with loss   
of power and loss of her that he would chose to let her go, to face whatever destiny she   
could forge for herself. But Jareth had never sworn, had never looked her in the eye and   
acquiesced to her plea. He had, had simply given her what comfort could be found in his   
strong, sure arms. Had wrapped her in his warmth and shielded her from the reality they   
now faced.   
  
Damn, damn, damn... Sarah had always known that she would have to play Jareth games, from   
her first moment back Underground, but who would have guessed that she'd have to face   
hordes of High Sidhe and play their games as well?   
  
****************************************************************************************  
  
Jareth was worried, worried in a vague sort of way that hazily penetrated the thick haze of   
fury that he was barely keeping in check. He didn't, couldn't, spare a glance for Kym,   
Faerie Queen, or Sarah... All he managed was a flat, murderous stare that was directed at   
the pacing Unicorn Queen and even that required an immense internal struggle for self   
control.   
  
His cool façade of calm, condescending amusement was cracked... His shield of charm and   
innuendo and sexual attraction was left behind ages ago. Now all he had was his anger,   
his unbelievable rage.  
  
How dare she! How dare they all!   
  
Jareth had come to this Judgment Session expecting to be challenged, tried... Expecting   
to have them try to take Sarah away because she was beautiful and human and unique and   
HIS. But he had not expected this, this all out attack on him, on his every fault, on   
his every indiscretion.  
  
He didn't think Evirey had the nerve, or the power, to try it. But, watching her through   
slitted eyes he wasn't entirely sure that she was bluffing. Wasn't entirely sure she   
wasn't subtely challenging his unacknowledged place as the strongest of the High Sidhe.   
  
Looks like the Court's little Messenger had grown herself a spine and her own set of   
fangs. She would regret it, dearly. Jareth did not handle defiance well. Kym closed   
the small distance between them. The Goblin King's glare met her cool eyes, searing   
fire against uninterested ice.   
  
Kym was the oldest reigning monarch among the High Sidhe and more often then now   
Jareth's ally. Not always, but when it mattered, when he was more bereft and alone   
then he liked, she always seemed to be there.   
  
"Hold your temper," she whispered in a stern voice that carried no farther then his   
ear. The honey silk of her tone carried an edge that Jareth remembered all too well   
from his childhood. It was the voice of command, and though he rarely listened, when   
it was used he paid attention. They were treading dangerous ground here.   
  
"Hold your temper and watch..." A milky white arm swept forward and pointed at Sarah,   
his beautiful, precious, half lost Sarah.   
  
"What's going on Kym?" The question was a hissed demand that the Faerie Queen answered   
with a soft smile that was in no way weak. She reached up and patted Jareth on the   
cheek like a child, a boy who was still young enough to bounce on her knee.   
  
"Do you really think I would risk my power and reputation on the assumption that you   
would be able to keep a rein on your anger and react reasonably during this   
Judgment Session? I know you better than that Jareth..."  
  
"Then why?" the Goblin King demanded, frustrated by this game he didn't quite understand.   
The Faerie Queen smiled large enough to flash her delicate fangs and chuckled quietly,   
richly.   
  
"Because I saw the woman standing at your side and judged her worthy of my support. I've   
never decided if you're brilliant or just incredibly lucky Jareth; someone as foolhardy   
as you should never have advanced as far as you have, despite your talent and raw power.   
And yet, and yet you have the strangest ability to attract those who can help you   
most... me, Cadreth, and the immortal human named Sarah."   
  
Jareth's gut tightened and clenched as he looked wildly to the woman he had stole from   
Aboveground. Sarah straightened and seemed to draw on some reservoir of inner strength   
as her head came up, chin raised with a kind of defiance that the Goblin King was all   
too familiar with.   
  
He realized what she was about to do a second before she started to step forward but   
Kym's petite grip held him like steel. "Wait," the Faerie Queen breathed, sapphire eyes   
intent on the human. The Goblin King watched, helplessly, as Sarah strode, confident,   
proud, unbowed, unfrightened, forward.  
  
Evirey paused in her speech, dark gaze speculatively following the human and within   
seconds the entire Court was concentrating on the diminutive form in blue and silver.   
Sarah stopped several feet from Cadreth's seat and curtsied low. The Phoenix King   
watched the human before him with what might have been called a slight smile.   
  
"I wish to address the Court." Sarah's voice rang clear and strong throughout the huge   
room. The Lord of the Court rose and bowed in return to the human below him. He replied,   
his own voice grave and respectful, as he rose.   
  
"Granted."   
  
Eviey moved to protest, sharp face outraged at this lack in protocol, but Cadreth silenced   
her with a fierce, piercing glare. The Unicorn Queen subsided. She wasn't entirely   
stupid. She was insane enough to take on Jareth but not Cadreth. Cadreth was Lord of   
her biggest power base, the Sidhe Court. He was not to be trifled with. Sarah smiled   
with heart stopping beauty and rose as well before speaking.   
  
"Am I to understand that I am considered a citizen, a part, of the Underground, this   
world?" Cadreth cocked his head, as if trying to figure out where the human was coming   
from before answering on behalf of the Court.  
  
"Yes Sarah Williams. You are not a part of our world, a citizen if you will." Sarah   
took a deep breath and the smile, the smile became radiant.  
  
"Then I am subject to your laws, your rights, and your traditions." The Phoenix King's   
light brows drew in with puzzlement but he answered after only a heart beat of silence.   
  
"You are correct."   
  
Sarah clasped her hands serenely before her as she replied in that same sweet voice   
that held a hint of smugness reminiscent of Jareth. "Then I demand this, if I am truly   
a resident of the Underground... Since I was not born to High Sidhe or have the power   
to be made thus, then I demand that I be taken to the Room of Fate where I will be told,   
I will be told where I belong.  
  
"Where there won't be any more fighting or talk of punishment. Where we'll know once and   
for all if King Jareth erred, or if I truly belong, and then, where I belong."   
  
Thunderous silence met this statement, silence of a different quality than the expectant,   
anticipatory silence of before. This silence was from pure and simple shock.  
  
Jareth's low, dark, full laughter was the first thing to break it. He met and held   
Sarah's triumphant eyes as a smug smile of his own touched his sensual lips. The human had   
outwitted them all... An entire Court of immortals and she had outwitted every last one   
of them! 


	23. Chapter Twenty Two: The Room of Fate

AN: Sooooo bloody close... LOL.. Thanks for all the great reviews for the last chapter,   
keep em coming!   
  
PS: As sorry a dedication as this is, I'd like to put this chapter up in memory of Kevin   
Smith, Ares on Xena: Warrior Princess for those who aren't familar with him. Kevin,   
38, died from serious head injuries sustained after falling off of a tower in Beijing   
during the last day of filming for his new film. My heart goes out to his wife and   
children. Heaven bless...   
  
Standard Disclaimers apply...  
  
  
  
************************* Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Two **********************  
  
  
"Can she do this?" demanded an irate Tortar to his companion as the Court stopped its   
slow procession in front of giant gilded doors that sealed the Room of Fate. Evirey's   
dark gaze raked over the arched doorway and landed briefly on the human that had proved   
herself more then a pawn.   
  
Sarah Williams stood close to her allies, the Goblin King, the Faerie Queen, and the   
supposed neutral, Phoenix King. The Unicorn admitted, if only to herself, that she was   
captivating in a way that transcended her allure of simple humanity. There was some   
quality in her grave eyes, some uplift to her almost normal features, some shadow in her   
pale, upturned face that spoke to the eternal within all immortals. That pulled the gaze   
of those who had seen a thousand wonders and held it unwaveringly.   
  
She should not be standing there, here, within this world. Evirey had named her a dreamer   
but she was more, more and enough to be the undoing of all that Evirey had set to fall.   
The Unicorn Queen knew more of mortals than almost any other at this Court. She held   
dozens in her thrall, had seen generations be born and die within the walls of her palace.   
And yet still she had underestimated this mere woman, aged, flowered, mundane and yet...   
yet...  
  
"Who will stop her?" replied the Unicorn Queen softly to her weak, belligerent ally. The   
Troll King blinked and sighed, a hiss of sound that was lost as the Room of Fate groaned   
once and slowly started to open.   
  
***************************************************************************************  
  
Jareth captured Sarah's attention as he stepped next to her and laid a gloved hand on her   
alabaster cheek as tendrils of silken hair caught and wrapped around his muscled arm.   
Mismatched blue and green sought and judged worried amber. "What if I made the wrong   
choice...?" whispered the human who stood before him, eyes wide with fear... Fear of   
her own fate and, and his.   
  
There was not love in her wavering eyes, not adoration, but a softening, a gentleness he   
thought would never survive as she beheld them. There was no anger in Sarah, no fury,   
no rage, no spark of rebelliousness against the man who had brought her to this place in   
exchange for the future of the only girl she had ever allowed herself to love as a mother   
loves a child.  
  
Jareth had always thought, as fiercely as he dared, that, bound to him for eternity, that   
Sarah would one day give herself completely to him. Would abandon the knight in shining   
armor, would forget her almost daughter, and love him. Return the love he already felt for   
her. Always thought, had never believed.   
  
Not even a Goblin King had been that arrogant.   
  
But now?   
  
Jareth took a shuddering breath and let his hand fall away with an act of will power he   
doubted he would be able to complete again. "Right or wrong the decision was made by you   
Sarah. I don't think you realize how precious, how rare, the honor of forging the path of   
your own fate is here, in the Underground. How extraordinary what you have done is." And   
the flowered compliment was truth because, because Jareth never lied, not to her.   
  
Knowledge hung heavy between them for a long, immeasurable second.  
  
The doors stopped, wide, inviting, the room behind them anonymous with misleading darkness.   
The moment was broken with Cadreth's cleared throat. Sarah whirled and swallowed as the Lord   
of the Court bowed shallowly to the immortal human.  
  
"We will await you outside Sarah. You may enter now." His words were careful, political,   
but his eyes... his bottomless cerulean eyes were warm with gratitude and thanks, with relief.   
Sarah responded to the Phoenix King's incredible eyes with a fierce, suddenly glad smile.  
  
She turned her back on them all then, without another word. Turned her back on the Sidhe   
Court and faced the Room of Fate, head cocked as she studied the place that would tell her   
her destiny, perhaps, if, if she was truly one of them. If she was truly part of this   
devious, cunning world.   
  
Some part of her rebelled at the idea. The part that longed for Devon and Melanie and   
Saturday morning cartoons enjoyed in bed. The part of her that missed Starbucks and People   
magazine. But another part, another part of Sarah, the part touched by Jareth, the part   
that had transpired and beaten this place so long ago, buried, but never forgotten,   
whispered softly to her and wanted, wanted so badly for the Room to do what Hellin had said   
it would.  
  
She wanted it to tell her who she was and where she belonged, where she belonged in the   
Underground because, because a part of her did want to call it home.   
  
Sarah Williams took a deep, steadying breath, and walked inside the grand room. Ornate doors   
closed softly, immediately, behind her. The entire Sidhe Court waited with bated breath.   
  
*********************************************************************************************  
  
The darkness lifted the moment the doors clicked together and sealed her in. It was exactly   
as Hellin had described it, but more grand. The whiteness, the pristine magical presence of   
the room was overwhelming, especially since it was made to accommodate thousands upon   
thousands of children of every shape and size, not one lone human woman.  
  
The ceiling, as in the Ball Room, was high and obscured by rolling fog. Chandeliers hung,   
suspended from crystal chains that came out of the fog, sparkling, glittering creations of   
diamond and pearl and quartz. Candles floated on porcelain dishes like the gold lanterns of   
the Ball as well. They drifted slowly, lazily almost, white wax dripped down as guttering   
flames softly illuminated the already bright room.   
  
The room was indeed immense and eerily silent, gleaming. It was waiting for her, Sarah felt   
it, felt its intelligence in the pit of her clenched stomach. She took several tentative   
steps further, her dress making a hiss of noise as silk rubbed against silk. It was unnerving,   
the feel of ivory walls watching her, judging her, looking into her soul.   
  
Her arms came up, protectively, and folded across her chest, a shield, defiance, Sarah wasn't   
sure which and was hardly inclined to find out.   
  
'So Sarah Williams... you have come to find out who you are and where you belong.' Sarah   
jumped, startled, at the voice inside her head and, and her heart. Jumped at the intrusion   
and, stifled a cry when she recognized it.   
  
"Mama?" The whisper was torn from an incredulous, tight, throat as the warm, honey toned   
voice of a woman scorned but never hated invaded depths of her soul that no Dragon mind   
voice had ever reached. Amazing how this place could make her feel so very young sometimes.   
  
Sarah swallowed as vague memories of fairy tales, bedside stories, chocolate chip cookies,   
and milk, were pulled from a repressed, half forgotten past with the recognition of her long   
lost mother's voice. It was suddenly very apparent why creatures never lied about what the   
Room of Fate told them. Not if it spoke in the voice every being most longed, individually,   
to hear.   
  
'You want to know yourself human? You are a mortal immortalized, a woman, a mother; you are   
living sacrifice. You are beauty, truth, defiance that will never be broken, strength that   
will always be tested, will that cannot be killed. You are fire and chocolate and some   
mixture of darkness that could light any room. You are the gray that you see in the world.   
You are the past and the future.   
  
'You are many things Sarah but you only belong in one place, in any plane, any existence, any   
world. There is indeed only one place that all that you are will ever be able to embrace as   
home. Sarah Williams you belong...'  
  
**********************************************************************************************  
  
Sarah stumbled out of the open doors of the Room of Fate. The Sidhe Court watched quietly,   
respectfully. None of the Sidhe here had ever been in that dreaded room. High Sidhe were   
born High, if not by blood then by inherent power. They had never had to be told who they   
must be. They were always arrogant enough to know.   
  
But every other, everyone they had spoken to, there was always an air of mystery and things   
forbidden when the Room of Fate was spoken of. Jareth took a hesitant step forward, unsure   
for the first time in his immortal life, but stopped at a fierce glare from the Faerie Queen.   
The choice had been made, Sarah stood on her own here, before them all.  
  
"I... I..." Sarah trailed off as she stared at the Sidhe Court, wide eyed, unnoticed tears   
pouring down her brutally open face. She looked vulnerable, frail, but there was a steel in   
Sarah that could never totally be overcome. The Underground could destroy a lesser human but   
Sarah, Sarah would never be one of them.   
  
Amber eyes found Jareth's and the earnestness, rawness in them would haunt the Goblin King as   
long as he drew breath. She grounded herself in his questioning eyes though, drew strength   
even as he marveled that she dared, that she allowed him to give that much of himself to her.   
  
Sarah had grown up in so many ways.  
  
"The Room of Fate has spoken to me." Her beautiful mature voice was steady, despite how   
shaken she was, and it reached every assembled creature's ears. Sarah licked suddenly dry   
lips before continuing, "And has let me keep my word. I am a subject of the Goblin King." 


	24. Chapter Twenty Three: Home

AN: Hay, it took a week and I did the whole chapter today, but its longer than average   
so, enjoy. Maybe another two chapters to go... Keep encouraging me with all those wonderful   
reviews... *hint hint* LOL...  
  
If you want a disclaimer go read another chapter. One where I was inspired enough to   
actually write one. I am pathetic aren't I? =)  
  
  
  
************************ Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Three ************************  
  
  
"I refuse to accept that!"  
  
"She's lying!"  
  
Shouts and accusations echoed in the grand hall way as the Sidhe Court bickered like   
children. Sarah was disgusted and ashamed at the pettiness that lived in such majesty   
and grandeur. Jareth caught her look of distaste and slid closer to her.   
  
"You've seen us unmasked, what do think of our world?" Our was the Royal Plural,   
exclusive, and inclusive, all three at the same time. Sarah stared at the man beside   
her for a heart beat, weighed him with suddenly grave amber eyes, judged him. The Goblin   
King smiled and it held nothing but bitterness.   
  
"I think... I think that I am very glad that I wished myself away to you and that, that of   
all of the creatures here you are the most powerful." Jareth's breath caught in his throat   
and his gloved hand came up and trailed through Sarah's free, very willing hair. It clung   
to him and slid around his curled fingers like liquid silk, like burnished copper and   
freshly turned earth.   
  
His eyes darkened, closed, shuttered, until all that Sarah saw was what he allowed, seduction,   
power, an intensity that held her spell bound, that always had. The way a moth was drawn to   
the flame... Only she was drawn to his darkness.   
  
Heaven help her, if it could.   
  
The windows to his tortured soul were no longer open. The fires, the hell that seemed to   
rage so close to the surface, the passion inside of Jareth that took her breath away and   
frightened her all at the same time were contained. Never subdued, but hidden. She suddenly   
was very aware of his hand wrapped in layers of her tresses.  
  
"Why? Why do you believe me so kind hearted Sarah? Don't you believe that I'm dangerous?   
Or have I suddenly lost my claws?" She returned his grim bitter smile and answered softly,   
her own eyes empty of anything that could give her away.  
  
"You'll always be dangerous Jareth. There'll always be some part of you that shuns the   
light. Some part of you that embraces evil. Its your nature Jareth, and I will never, can   
never forget that.  
  
"But you are the Goblin King Jareth, you are my King. I can, will, never forget that   
either." He growled.  
  
"But will you ever forgive me for it?" And just for an instant the barriers fell and there   
was such agony, such turmoil... Sarah stared at her King in puzzlement, bewilderment.  
  
"What is there to forgive?" He leaned closer and they were oblivious to the screaming, the   
pandemonium, the existence of the most powerful beings in the Underground. Searching,   
searching, those pain filled eyes focused and latched onto her face, her lined but still   
beautiful face.   
  
"Do you truly believe that Sarah? No past transgressions to throw back in my face? No   
accusations? No hate filled words? Where are your demands for fairness Sarah?" She closed   
her eyes, unwilling to bear the weight in Jareth's gaze, not unable.   
  
He had to lean closer to hear her whispered reply, so close his face, heated, nearly brushed   
her own pale, cool features. "Lost to a world of black and white. Abandoned with childhood.   
I'm not a child anymore Jareth, I do get tired of repeating myself." Her eyes snapped open   
and an insolent look very similar to a certain Goblin King's expression passed over her   
delicate face.   
  
"There's no one to blame for what has happened between us Jareth. Me, you... Life played   
out. I spoke the words; you stole the child. I ate the peach; we made a deal. You tried   
to claim what was yours; I offered you something else. The Room of Fate named you my King,   
could I do any less?"   
  
At the last question her already quiet voice caught and was smaller, almost vulnerable.   
Jareth saw the sudden weakness in Sarah and wondered at it.   
  
"Why," he demanded, "does the Room of Fate have such power over those who enter it?" Sarah   
turned away from him then, offered the bare line of her hunched shoulders, the gentle sweep   
of a gracefully curved neck, the yearning hair. She answered then, because his question had   
been an order, and because the Goblin King was her liege.   
  
"I haven't heard my mother's voice for over thirty years. She walked out on my dad, on me,   
but there's always... there's always a hole inside, a wound, a pain that can only be soothed   
by her hand, her voice, and the Room spoke to me in her voice Jareth. It wasn't her, I know   
that, knew it even as it spoke to me but... I couldn't, can't, ignore it, her. It's a   
powerful thing, to be told who you are by the one person you long for, miss, need the most."  
  
He started to reply to her, started to respond, either to her obvious pain or with, with her   
startling revelations. That he wasn't a monster, that, even if he was a villain, he wasn't   
hers. But the shouting, the yelling, had subsided. The Sidhe Court had thrown their   
tantrums.   
  
Cadreth, Phoenix King, Lord of the Court, called for order and they listened. He stood   
before them all, before his peers and enemies, one in the same, and spoke, rolling voice   
reaching throughout the crowded hall.   
  
"The Room has spoken. The human immortal belongs here, in the Underground, at the Goblin   
King's side. This Judgment Session is closed..."  
  
Evirey strode forward angrily, her dress sliding to reveal pale skin, dark, strange eyes   
furious, sharply defined face twisted with frustration. "She's lying Cadreth!" One blunted,   
accusing finger pointed straight to Sarah's back. Those who wished for Jareth's down fall   
watched with interest but did not attempt to aid the Unicorn Queen.   
  
Many thirsted for revenge, but none would rather dine on failure. They would not stand beside   
Evirey until she was winning and now, everything was far from certain. Even foolish Tortar   
stood slightly apart from his proclaimed ally.   
  
Draculo watched from the shadows, lost in the crowd, dangerous eyes narrowed at the Queen of   
the Unicorns before concentrating on the human that had surprised them all so much. Jareth   
was a solid, unmoving pillar at the immortal mortal's side. Draculo had misjudged the   
situation badly, it was true.   
  
The Vampire King had seen the human acquisition as a weakness. The wisest course would have   
been to aid Evirey, to combine their political and magical strength to try to humble the   
proud Goblin King. It had been their plan, had been what everyone, including Jareth, had   
expected.   
  
Draculo hated to be boring, mundane.   
  
He had abandoned Evirey to whatever actions she wished to take. Had pursued the bizarre   
human woman. Had named her Goblin Queen and negated any power against Jareth he might hold   
in the Judgment Session. Had gambled, had almost lost, had almost won, and in reality had   
done neither.   
  
The image of a small, gold Dragon Queen flowered in his mind, a half memory stolen from   
another. Jareth would walk away this day, the human at his side, just as powerful, more   
powerful, than before, but Draculo had what he wanted.   
  
The Dragon Queen had been born.   
  
He knew nothing besides that. Didn't know her strength, where she was, or her name.   
But she lived, for now. And what lived, could die. That was all the truth any of his   
people needed to survive.   
  
Draculo smiled, fangs white, even against the pale of his colorless lips. He watched with   
interest as the fight continued before him but, he was neutral about the outcome. He was   
Vampire King and he would be the one to see the Dragons die. It was enough to stir even his   
cold heart, to make his stolen blood sing with fierce triumph at the thought of the golden   
scaled Dragon Queen lying broken somewhere, emerald eyes closed forever. It was enough.   
  
*****************************************************************************************  
  
Sarah turned and faced the raging Unicorn Queen, unnoticed tears streaking her white cheeks,   
face a familiar mixture of indignation and her own brand of defiant fury. She took a step   
forward and smiled a very Jareth like smile at the flicker of uncertainty on the Unicorn   
Queen's so very inhuman features.   
  
"I lie Unicorn Queen? I am human, true, and untruths have fallen past my lips but no one,   
not even I, would, could lie about the Room of Fate. If I am capable of lying about such   
a thing, if the Room's magic is so weak, then all that you have ever known is a lie.   
  
"Every child, every being, that has crossed the threshold has been able to lie to you all.   
Your entire society hangs in the balance of whether or not the Room of Fate is true. I   
have not lied. I have said where my place is, where I belong, and that is at the Goblin   
King's side.   
  
"By my word, by his agreement, by the Room of Fate's own decree. I belong in this world   
and I belong to him. Challenge that and you challenge all that you know. Is it worth it   
Unicorn Queen? Is revenge truly worth that much? But none of this is what this Judgment   
Session is supposed to be about anyway." As Sarah paused for breath Kym, Faerie Queen,   
glided smoothly forward.   
  
"Yes friends. Jareth was brought before you to present his newest subject. Normally any   
human kidnapped from Above would be brought here, presented. His failure to do so could   
normally result in censure, contestment to his claims of ownership. But the Room of Fate   
has decreed that this particular human belongs to him.   
  
"Another reason this Session was called was because the human was granted immortality. If   
it was granted in error, then perhaps there might be a case for rashness against Jareth but,   
again, the Room has spoken. Sarah belongs here, as one of us, and we are all immortal."   
  
"But she never should have been brought at all!" Evirey was flushed as she cried out and   
Kym bowed slightly to the Unicorn Queen, humoring her as one would a child.   
  
"Perhaps," the Faerie Queen ceded, a sparkle in light, ice riddled blue eyes that had seen   
too much. She was a dangerous woman, when she chose to be. "Jareth was granted permission   
to bring babes into our world, we have all been given that, if we are willing to accept the   
risks. But no one has ever forbidden him to bring a grown woman who belongs here.   
  
"There are no rules, no laws, nothing to forbid it. No one else has the power, the will,   
or," at this those knowledgeable eyes danced and met Jareth's impassive features, "the blind   
luck to pull it off. There is no point to this Judgment Session. Accept your loss Evirey,   
Tortar."  
  
Evirey hissed in response to the imperious Faerie Queen as anger crossed the Troll King's   
own face. The Unicorn Queen's trembling arm dropped as she whirled to Cadreth.   
  
"Its over Evirey," the grave Phoenix King said softly, voice surprisingly gentle. The Lord   
of the Court gathered himself and addressed the entire assembly. "There is no vote for   
there is nothing to be decided! The Room of Fate has spoken, and its answer has cleared   
Jareth, Goblin King, of any and all crimes. The immortal human Sarah, is one of the Goblins   
if only in name, not form. This Judgment Session has ended. Disperse until another day,   
Court adjourned!" The Court swelled and held a breath of silence before applause broke out.   
  
The Sidhe Court appreciated nothing better then good entertainment and showmanship. It was   
one of the greatest reasons that Jareth was as powerful as he was, and why he wasn't hated   
as much as he otherwise might have been. He always put on a fantastic show.  
  
A wave of Cadreth's arms brought another portal that would take each creature and being to   
their own destinations. A portal like that was a very rare talent and one of the many   
reasons why the Phoenix King was Lord of the Court. The Court glided forward like an oil   
spill as, one by one, incredible creatures vanished into the swirling, ebony vortex.  
  
****************************************************************************************  
  
Sarah, shaking slightly, jumped as Jareth put a questioning hand on her arm. She looked   
up and smiled wearily, still in shock, at the mask she was most familiar with. The Goblin   
King looked down at her in bland amusement, eyes neutral, mouth curling with a smirk that   
hinted at things not entirely wholesome. They shared a meaningful silence as they stood   
together, next to the portal, across from Cadreth, as the frightening Sidhe Court flowed   
slowly forward.   
  
The passing of the Faerie Queen drew both of their attention away from each other. Kym   
paused at the mouth of the portal and smiled toothily at them both, her wings rattling   
against each other, looking anything in the world like a bird ruffling and resettling her   
feathers.   
  
"Best of, of luck Jareth," she said finally, merriment plain as it warmed usually cold   
azure eyes. Her gaze darkened somewhat when she transferred her stare to Sarah. That   
pale, pale hand came up and cupped Sarah's cold cheek as a half smile twisted lips that   
looked like freshly bloomed roses.   
  
"I, I expect great things of you human, immortal, Sarah. Be careful, keep your wits   
about you, and never back down to a certain Goblin King. He needs to be kept in line."   
  
The Faerie Queen disappeared into portal without giving either of them time to respond.   
  
It was Jareth's steel like grip that stopped the Unicorn Queen. Evirey glared at the man   
who had escaped his demise, anger plain on her whitened features. "You'll fall one day   
Goblin King, and I'll be there to laugh as you try to pick up the pieces."   
  
Jareth tsked the Queen of the Unicorns. "You tread dangerous ground Evirey." She stared   
at him mutely, eyes wide, but did not reply. She had been dealt a blow today, and she   
should have seen it coming.  
  
She watched Jareth for the Sidhe Court because she disapproved of him. Because she was   
jealous, like all of them, of his power. Because he had insulted her. Because, for a   
thousand petty reasons, he had earned her emnity. She had seen what he had done, and had   
hoped to humiliate him before the Court. Had hoped to own the human curiosity for herself.   
Had hoped to possess what Jareth had claimed as his.   
  
But somewhere between when she had discovered his transgressions and today, the Judgment   
Session, she had forced this to become a play for power, a plot for revenge, a way to make   
the untouchable Jareth humble.   
  
And had failed miserably.   
  
The Goblin King smiled and it was chilling.   
  
"That's right child. You played with fire and were burned. But you attempted what few have   
dared to try before. Next time plan better, more ruthlessly, and we shall see. I do enjoy a   
challenge." Evirey's skin flushed at how easily he saw through her.   
  
She ripped her arm away, ivory curls falling forward to obscure her face and the ebony star   
that shone on her brow. Obsidian eyes glared at the arrogant King of the Goblins as the   
Unicorn Queen straightened.   
  
"As do I." Jareth laughed at her as she slid through the portal.  
  
"You made a true enemy out of her today Jareth." Jareth turned his suddenly impassive face   
to the Vampire King.   
  
"It would have happened eventually." Draculo inclined his head regally but his hypnotizing   
eyes were on Sarah and Sarah alone. She was the one vulnerable to his power, not the Goblin   
King.  
  
"Draculo." His name was short, a warning. The Vampire King smiled lazily and ignored   
Jareth. He leaned forward to whisper in Sarah's ear.  
  
She refused to raise her suddenly downcast face and, Draculo could smell her fear like   
perfume. His lips parted and spoke softly, mouth hovering inches from the tempting vein on   
her slender neck. He could sense her pulse fluttering, rapid, desperate.   
  
"Give the Dragon Queen my fondest hello and tell her, tell her that I shall be meeting her   
very. very soon."   
  
Sarah jerked in response as Draculo straightened and smiled, deadly, at the furious Goblin   
King. It was the human that shocked him once again though.   
  
Her head shot up and, just for instant, Sarah met his seeking black eyes, pure rage searing   
away the instant attempt he made to capture her again. "Burn in Hell."   
  
And, despite her very real terror of him, her beautiful voice did not waver. She looked   
away then, let the Goblin King hold her closer to his side. This time it was Draculo's   
laughter that haunted them as he stepped through the portal, gone at last.   
  
****************************************************************************************  
  
They stood together as the last of the Sidhe Court disappeared into the waiting, yearning   
darkness. At last the hallway before the Room of Fate was empty save the Goblin King, the   
human woman, and the Phoenix King.   
  
Cadreth smiled at them both, flaming hair softening and dimming. Sarah met his gaze and,   
and found those bottomless cerulean eyes very reassuring after the cold misery that had   
clenched like a tight ball of fear in her stomach after Draculo's words.   
  
"Go well Sarah. Go well Goblin King. Happy huntings..."  
  
"And fair skies." Jareth responded to the traditional parting with an almost totally genuine   
smile.   
  
"What now?" Jareth shook himself at the softly asked question and took Sarah's un-scarred   
hand without asking for it. She didn't protest.  
  
"We go home," he replied with something very close to relief. Sarah closed her amber eyes   
at the brief flash of pain she felt with the word... Home...   
  
Melanie, Devon... But that, that was the past and, god help her, Sarah had learned something   
very painful about life in her thirty five years... It always went on.   
  
And on meant a home that was very different from the one she had sacrificed herself to   
preserve. Home was Underground, was the Labyrinth, was a place that held as much darkness   
and light. Home was the Goblin King.   
  
"Home..." she repeated, tasting the word on her lips and not finding it nearly as bitter as   
she expected.   
  
Together, together Sarah and Jareth stepped through the portal together, and went home.   
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
Cadreth was left in the silent hall as he closed the vortex after they left. He sighed to   
himself and paused before calling a smaller, less energy expending portal for himself.   
Hesitant steps took him to the doors of the Room of Fate.   
  
The Phoenix King touched those white, shining doors, and shook his head before backing away.   
He simply wasn't that brave.   
  
Few High Sidhe were.   
  
He vanished into the darkness he called for himself, hair burning bright.  
  
  
  
  
  
AN2: Yeah, there's some minor grammar and spelling things I've missed so far but I plan to go   
back and edit the whole story once I get it out of my head. Thanks for understanding. And my   
comma usage sucks. Just FYI. Yell at me if a particular section of a particular passage or   
chapter is exceptionally bad or confusing due to grammar boo boos. 


	25. Chapter Twenty Four: I Love You

AN: *bites nails nervously and peers over readers' shoulders* How's this chapter?  
  
I had a witty disclaimer but... I blew my memory limit for the day with my in class essay.   
Standard disclaimers now apply.   
  
  
************************ Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Four **************************  
  
  
They stepped into the Goblin King's bedroom, the magic flaring and dying around them in a   
brilliant burst of otherworldly light. Sarah sighed and looked at her surroundings with   
something that was mixed pain and relief. Both warred on her face until relief won.   
  
She could feel Jareth's heated gaze on her, could sense the intensity buried behind the   
façade of pale, mismatched eyes. Could feel the cooled magic, the power, still clinging   
to his form. It was easy to forget now, sometimes, how human he truly wasn't. He was a   
man, a King, but he was hardly human. Hardly that mundane.   
  
Sarah uncurled her hand from his gloved one and, with a gentle tug, freed herself from his   
finely boned fingers. Her hand, still trembling from shock, fell away from the supple leather   
of the glove. She ignored her King and took the few steps to the bed. Sarah perched on the   
edge, knees drawn to her chin like a child as she rested her head on them, arms wrapped around   
her whole body for reassurance.   
  
She didn't speak, only closed rich brown eyes tightly, and breathed deeply. Breathed deeply   
and tried with all her might to accept what her heart was telling her, that she had fought and   
won. That this place, this magical, accursed place, was truly, and always meant to be, home.   
  
Home. A place of safety, of comfort, of security.   
  
She had never been so frightened in her life.  
  
********************************************************************************************  
  
Jareth watched his subject, HIS Sarah. In the candle light of his room she looked soft, less   
fierce, more a girl than a woman grown. Her face, bathed in shadow, was highlighted gold as   
it rested on top of her knees. Her blue gown clung to her, out of place with the dark hues   
of his room. But then, she seemed almost out of place here herself.   
  
Sarah, for all her wonders, for all her beauty and uniqueness, was hardly exotic. Eye   
catching, breath taking certainly, but not exotic. The Goblin King cursed softly to himself   
as that tight place in his chest eased, warmed, filled with her sight, was soothed by the   
promise of her eternal presence.   
  
He glided an almost hesitant step closer to her, then another when he received no reaction.   
Another step, less timid, put him at her side. Jareth watched her for another long moment,   
and when temptation proved too much even for his own considerable will power, reached out...  
  
One gloved hand touched, then stroked responsive hair. She didn't startle at his touch,   
didn't pull back, didn't protest. He let out a deep breath before she spoke.  
  
"I... I didn't exactly tell the truth back there."   
  
His hand froze.   
  
"What are you talking about Sarah?" She looked up then, looked up and tilted her face to   
smile crookedly at him. Tears filled her lovely, expressive eyes. When she spoke her voice   
was halting, alternating between laughter and hysteria.  
  
"Back there, before the Sidhe Court. I... I lied."   
  
Without thinking about it a stunned Jareth dropped fluidly to his knees so that they were   
level with each other, immortal human and inhuman Goblin King. He stared at the woman he had   
loved for twenty years and wondered if he saw a stranger.   
  
"Sarah..." Her name was spoken almost harshly, a command. The crooked, half broken smile   
widened a bit as she looked away from him, face focused blankly at a wall. Gentle, firm   
fingers, trailed down through her hair and rested on her flushed cheek for a moment before   
moving to lightly grip her chin. His inexorable grip guided her eyes back to his.   
  
The tears were gone as she stared at him, a deer caught in headlights. The smile faltered   
and dissipated, turned into a sad, half angry line of discontent.   
  
"I... I didn't so much as lie as I didn't tell all of the truth."   
  
"Define your truth Sarah. Now." The laughter, wild, fearful, returned for a moment before   
she sagged again and turned her face towards the comfort of his hand. Jareth, baffled,   
cradled her face in his bewildered hands. She pulled away after a long minute, all laughter   
gone.   
  
She held out one hand, palm up. The scar, white, angry, gleamed in the half flickering light.   
  
"Do you know what this is?" Jareth bristled at the question but quelled, quieted at the pain   
behind Sarah's words. He reached outward, caught the hand, and, with a jealous, bitter swallow,   
traced the jagged line of the scar and answered, voice vibrant with a thousand mixed emotions,   
even in its gentle fierceness.  
  
"This is the scar that is tangible, physical evidence of your love for a mortal man who will   
be dead and dust before you begin to learn what it means to be immortal, eternal. This   
is... is your knight in shining armor..." The last was spit out, barely.   
  
Sarah closed her eyes again, sighed, and brought the hand to her chest where she clutched it   
to her breast. She spoke after silence, untouchable, unbreakable, descended between them and   
filled the space separating their bodies.  
  
"It is a symbol of my love for Devon, and the disservice I did by loving him. I, I was his   
world Jareth. Besides Melanie, no one in Above could touch him like I could. He was so pure,   
so bright, so good. Boy Scout, all American, handsome, gentle, kind. He didn't smoke, drink,   
or gamble aside from the occasional poker game.   
  
"And even then he had to bend, had to shield my eyes from the blinding light so I could see his   
outstretched hand. He was my knight, my Angel, my rescuer. He brought me from the fires of   
Hell Jareth. He carried me back to life." Jareth held his ragged breath.   
  
"But he deserves someone who doesn't have to be shielded from the light Jareth. Damn it!"   
Sarah cried, suddenly anguished with a depth of despair he hadn't seen since he had taken her   
from her almost daughter. "Damn me," she continued softly, so soft he had to lean closer to   
hear her quiet words.   
  
"Damn me for not wanting his purity, his perfection. Immortal or not Jareth I'm no Angel, no   
Princess. I'm human, faillable, petty... And drawn to the darkness." She reached forward   
suddenly and grasped his willing hands.   
  
"Do you wish to know my truth Jareth? I am yours and I belong here, in the Labyrinth, Land   
of Nightmares and Dreams. But I don't just belong here in the Underground. I... You want   
to know what the Room of Fate told me Jareth?   
  
"It said the only place I'll ever belong, the only place I'll truly find happiness, peace, is   
by your side and in your arms."   
  
Jareth was on his feet in an instant, terrible, radiant, wavering between fury and hope as he   
pulled Sarah up as well, her body pressed against his, hands still clasped.   
  
"What exactly are you saying? That the Room of Fate named you my Queen?" Sarah laughed again   
and, trembling, buried herself in his shoulder, not seeking comfort or strength just...   
  
"No. The Room of Fate never named me Goblin Queen Jareth. It named me lover and beloved. It   
named me your match, your other half if something so cliché exists." Jareth growled suddenly.  
  
"I don't give a damn what the Room of Fate said. I want to know what you're saying, right now.   
What are you telling me Sarah?" She shuddered against him and tried not to weep. "Do you love   
me?"   
  
"Set me free Jareth." The King of the Goblins looked down at her, face defiant, pained even as   
he grappled with the desperate turn of their conversation. He cupped one cheek with gloves   
warmed from his body heat as he raised her face, trying desperately to understand, to see the   
words he needed to hear in order to say them himself, in order to believe what her tortured   
eyes told him. He would not be burned twice! But by Above, sometimes Sarah burned so brightly.  
  
"Sarah..."  
  
"Please Jareth, I, don't push this now. Not when time no longer matters. I belong here,   
release me from my vows and give me free will." His gaze seared hers, searching for answers to   
a thousand questions.   
  
"If... If I let you go how will I know that you'll stay will me Sarah? That fear for what   
you've been told is your destiny won't drive you away? That you won't return to your knight?   
That you won't try to embrace the light? What guarantee can you give me?" She met his gaze,   
his hungry, suddenly passionate gaze, met it, held it, and for once found herself equal to it.   
Found herself a match for Jareth, in all his unconscious splendor. Could meet his eyes strange,   
as a woman and not a child.  
  
"None at all," Sarah replied coolly, trying, desperately, not to cave, not to fold, not to melt   
into an embrace that held as much darkness as any night. Not to surrender to her King. For   
some part of her had always named him thus. Devon was forgotten as Jareth's eyes flashed,   
dangerous, baring for one heart wrenching instant the hell that was his turbulent soul as layers   
of masks were peeled away.   
  
"I cannot give you up Sarah, not even if you ask it. You are mine... After all we just went   
through you are mine. I shall not change who I am for anyone..." Sarah stopped his reply with   
soft fingertips on sensual lips. She had never been able to deny his beauty.  
  
"And I cannot love a man who is my master." He studied her, searched her, and sighed, turning   
away as she let her errant hand fall, clenched to one side.   
  
And the proud line of his shoulders broke, bowed, crumbled under the weight of a decision that   
no one, let alone a proud jaded immortal King, should have to make on the eve of winning his   
heart's desire. He let go what was rightfully his; he released the only woman he had ever   
loved from the promises that had bound her to him forever. He forfeited an assured future for   
something far less certain, a future ruled by free will.  
  
Jareth, Goblin King, turned back to her, stepped away, and bowed, fully, a mocking smile on   
pale, tightly pressed lips, tender heart reeling. "I release you from your agreement Sarah   
Williams. Your life, your allegiance, your loyalty are your own to do with what you will, to   
pledge to whom you wish. I am no longer your King."  
  
Sarah stepped forward even as he pulled away, stepped forward and placed one palm over his   
erratic heart beat, the other reached up to trace the lines of his regal face, exploring with   
a boldness that was entirely new. Jareth relaxed for a moment, allowed her caress, before   
growling in frustration, eyes clenched shut, hands fists.   
  
"Don't try my will power Sarah..." he breathed heavily, lost in the confusion of the last day.   
She smiled sadly, tears in her eyes, and reached up to kiss one cheek, then the other, then to   
plant a tender one on lips that had mocked her so often. That had been so cruel.   
  
She broke the brief, emotionally charged contact after a moment and drew far enough back to   
whisper her reply, her gentle, sorrowful reply.   
  
"You are no longer my King Jareth, unless I will it so. You set me free, what made you so   
certain that I wouldn't return?" Jareth jerked away and stared at her, eyes wild.  
  
"Don't toy with me Sarah!" he snapped harshly, tired, wrung out from a thousand emotions that   
tore at his weary immortal soul. An echo of angry words from two decades before. She smiled   
and it was a tender, fragile thing.  
  
"I do not give my heart lightly Goblin King. And I never lie. Not to you." The wild stare   
turned calculating then and, oh God, so fierce, so possessive it made her shiver.  
  
She was in his arms in an instant, crushed to his warm chest, held, pinned by arms that lifted   
her up to a hungry mouth. Yes, there was indeed darkness in the Goblin King and she needed   
that. He had ruined her happily ever after. He had ruined her knight in shining armor. He   
had jaded her simply by showing her how beautiful the night could be.  
  
"I love you. Heaven help me I've fallen in love with the Goblin King."   
  
Her palm burned and Sarah didn't care, just for that instant she yielded to the inevitable of   
fate. She had never felt more content.  
  
  
  
  
AN: Eh... Did I handle all that okay? I can't decide. And no this is not the last chapter.   
=) Too many loose ends to tie up sillies. *hint* The last chapter will be titled 'The End'.   
Trust me. ;) 


	26. Chapter Twenty Five: Doubts

AN: Hay ya'll! ;) One more chapter to go after this so get those reviews ready... LOL Hope   
everyone has had a good week and yes, I will have the end posted very very soon (within the   
next few days). Enjoy, peace, and, if you want to see a REALLY, REALLY good movie go see   
'The Count of Monte Cristo'. It was, wow... The script was really well written... =)   
  
  
  
************************ Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Five **************************  
  
  
"What will you do first, wed him or bed him?" Sarah glared good-naturedly at Drevlyn,   
Dragon Prince. They were all in Jareth's quarters, though not his bedroom. The Goblin   
King and the Dragon Queen were, despite evidence to both of their natures, playing.   
Honestly playing almost a month after the Judgment Session...  
  
Jareth was calling crystals that popped like rainbow colored bubbles as soon as Melani   
caught them. Never mind that they had a mind of their own and were ricocheting around   
the richly furnished room. The Goblin King's face was, while not unguarded, radiated a   
kind of happiness, joy, a lack of heaviness. It made Sarah wonder if her Melanie would   
have suffered unduly as Jareth's daughter.   
  
"Both, neither, are you volunteering to take care of whatever need I might be squeamish   
about?"   
  
Drevlyn choked on his own laughter. "Having second thoughts?"   
  
Sarah shivered, suddenly cold as her warm brown eyes dulled and focused on some inner   
sanctuary far, far away. "Sometimes," she whispered.   
  
"I want him so badly Drevlyn, don't get me wrong. Even twenty years ago I found him   
beautiful, desirable, and I knew nothing of desire then, as a child. I see him now through   
the eyes of a woman who has loved and been loved and... I never knew I had that kind of   
will power. Never guessed that he did as well." Bitter laughter trailed after the last   
confession.  
  
"You want to wait for marriage." It wasn't a question but she affirmed it with a sharp nod   
of her head, distant gaze settling restlessly on the man she herself proclaimed to love.   
  
"You didn't wait for any of the men you loved Aboveground."   
  
Anger stained Sarah's features, turned her mouth down, darkened her pale face. Drevlyn,   
and perhaps even Sarah herself, didn't know if the sudden rage was directed at the Dragon   
Prince, or the human immortal herself.   
  
"None of the men I have ever loved have held the darkness quite so close to their hearts.   
And I've never been so afraid of losing someone's love as I am right now." Ah, perhaps the   
anger was aimed at neither of them, but at a certain Goblin King.   
  
"You fear that if you give all of yourself, your heart and body, to Jareth before you are   
wed that you'll be a mystery solved, an itch scratched, a thing discarded."   
  
Sarah's gaze narrowed into a disgruntled, scathing, glare.   
  
"To put it crudely yes."   
  
Drevlyn's light laughter surprised her.  
  
"Give him an eternity and I doubt that Jareth could figure out all of your puzzles, find   
all of your surprises. Give him until Time ends and Above and Underground cease to be, give   
him until consciousness fades into blissful night and I will bet all that I am and will ever   
be that a certain Goblin King will never tire of your body or your beauty."  
  
"Heavy assurances to be coming from your mouth."  
  
"But truth none the less." She met his strange, flat yellow eyes and smiled softly,   
painfully.  
  
"Truth has very little to do with ruling the human heart Drevlyn." Drevlyn turned away from   
those too wise eyes and shrugged harshly.  
  
"You wish to wait for marriage, but you still hesitate when it comes to making Jareth your   
husband."   
  
Sarah swallowed and rubbed her ring finger. No engagement ring graced it. Devon's had been   
left in a world all but unreachable and Jareth... The Sidhe's marriage traditions were   
different from the ways of Above. The only ring she would wear would proclaim her as the   
Goblin King's bride.   
  
"I... I do. Not because I fear marriage but because... I know nothing of this place I claim   
as home. How dare I be audacious enough, arrogant enough, to think that I could rule it? I   
am not fit to be Goblin Queen.   
  
"I am Jareth's partner, match, love, Queen, but not his people's. The Room of Fate did not   
name me thus and I cannot in good faith do so either. What kind of Queen would I make? I'm   
not as devious as Evirey, as heartless as Tortar, as powerful as Kym, or, or strong enough to   
resist the wiles of Draculo."   
  
Sarah whirled and grabbed Drevlyn's surprised, taloned hands. Her face was open and pain   
filled. Regret and shame filled her tearful eyes. "Draculo, your race's most biter enemy   
knows of Melani's existence because of me. Because I am a fool and a weakling." She bit her   
lip and tore herself away from the Dragon Prince, self loathing evident. Drevlyn stared at her   
as he fumbled for a response, yellow eyes glued to the immortal human's strong, vulnerable   
profile.  
  
"He'll try to kill her won't he? The Vampire King will try to destroy the Dragons, try to   
destroy Melani, won't he?"   
  
Drevlyn smiled bitterly and shrugged gracelessly before managing a quiet reply. "Yes. Too   
much blood has been spilled on both sides... Too much hate has been fostered, festered,   
encouraged, cultivated and grown. Draculo will seek our new Queen and he will try to kill   
her. But he will not succeed." Drevlyn sighed heavily before continuing.   
  
"You think her a child because you saw her birth, because your souls touched and yours   
grounded and shaped hers and she is... She has been a child, lighthearted, happy, longer   
then any other Queen I have ever heard of. And, thanks to you, she will never completely   
loose her joy for life because your mind guided her and to you Sarah, once a mortal, all   
life, all Time, is precious and beautiful and deserved.   
  
"But she is Dragon. Melani has more magic, more strength, more potential then any other as   
well. She can, and will, rule the Dragons. She will unite her people and we will once more   
be a force to be reckoned with.   
  
"And she will bring the Vampires to their knees. Understand this Sarah, you did not betray   
my people."   
  
"But Draculo knows..."  
  
"Nothing!" Drevlyn snapped, interrupting. He went on, more softly, "He knows her face, her   
existence, that a Dragon Queen draws breath. You are immortal but still only human Sarah.   
You're right, you have no magic, but you have a will strong enough to resist a Vampire King.   
  
"Any other would have broken beneath the weight of his mind. Would have been warped, twisted,   
some part of them killed, maimed beyond repair. But he got nothing but a flash of a half   
formed memory. You are human Sarah, not Sidhe, but you are fit to be Goblin Queen. Perhaps   
not today, perhaps not this decade or this century, but you have the makings of a truly great   
monarch.   
  
"Marry Jareth Sarah, worry about marrying the Goblin King later. Allow yourself some   
happiness. See where your life leads you because nothing is set or final. The Room of Fate   
simply pointed you towards the right direction. The rest, as humans would say, is up to you.   
After all, you have eternity."   
  
She turned back to him, beautiful face still anguished. "Things aren't that simple," she   
whispered. Drevlyn leaned closer and rested his brow against hers, cool blue skin against   
her warm forehead.  
  
"It can be. Just let them go, the worries, the doubts. Let it all go Sarah. You don't have   
to be responsible, strong, all of the time. The world won't end. Love him Sarah, and let   
yourself be loved in return like you deserve."   
  
She drew back and unconsciously rubbed her scarred palm. Confused sable eyes darted from the   
Dragon Prince to the King who, even now, was grinning as he conjured a globe sized crystal   
and sent it spinning wildly away from the impatient and openly laughing Dragon Queen. Sarah   
cocked her head and felt some of the tension drain from her shoulders as she watched.   
  
Jareth, as if sensing her intense study, raised his face and met his eyes to hers, pale,   
frigid flames that warmed her even as they chilled. The smile he sent her way was nothing   
but heat, heat and the promise of things done behind closed doors and in darkened rooms.   
  
"I'll try," she replied, both to herself, the man who held her bewildered aching heart, and   
the waiting Dragon Prince.   
  
Drevlyn's own gaze was drawn away from the human at his side. They warmed golden as they   
rested on the care free Dragon Queen. "Good," he whispered in his own reply. "Good." 


	27. Epilogue: Loose Ends - The End

AN: Yes, the end, THE END. Wohooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some twenty seven odd chapters later I've   
managed to finally finish the itty bitty Labyrinth story I started some three odd months   
before. THANK YOU all SSSOOO much, both for the emails and support and reviews...  
  
Speaking of reviews, this is it... Your last chance to let me know what ya'll thought about   
reading this 'little' story. For you return reviewers, I'm eager to get your take on this   
chapter and the story as a whole. For all your first timers, welcome, welcome, no need to   
jostle. And for you lurkers, step into the light if only long enough to drop me a word or   
two! Last chapter, last chance! =) Yes, I am incorrigible, its one of my more endearing   
qualities. hehe   
  
I am planning, if I find the time and effort, to go through and edit everything, spit and   
polish so to speak, now that the darn thing is out of my head. I tried to tie up most of the   
loose ends with this chapter. I don't beliee in complete endings though. ;) I also make no   
promises what so ever about a sequel. I'm awful about writing them. We'll see.  
  
And now, on with the show. *bows* Thanks for the ride ya'll, its been fun. PS: I don't   
own Labyrinth, or David Bowie. Bummer.   
  
Random question... how do ya'll manage to review stuff so quickly? I usually have a   
chapter up for only about fifteen minutes before the first review. Just wondering and standing   
back in awed amazement, of course. ;)  
  
  
  
  
********************************* Sacrifices: Epilogue ********************************  
  
  
"Do you really have to do this?"   
  
Jareth caught Sarah's hands with his own gloved ones. They trembled within his, though not   
from weakness. His little Sarah had never been weak. Vulnerable perhaps, tender most   
certainly, but never weak. Long, fine fingers traced the vivid scar on her palm while intense,   
passion ridden eyes studied her reaction.   
  
Sarah hissed at his touch and he felt her lean towards him, felt her almost submit to his   
allure, to the darkness. Felt her almost admit just how much she wanted to crawl under silken   
sheets and hold his heated body close as dusk stole the sun's warmth and let cold creep in with   
the shadows.   
  
Almost.  
  
But she didn't.   
  
Sarah pulled away, face regretful but set in stubborn lines. Her hands, made steady by sheer   
force of will, clenched and unclenched at her sides. She met his eyes bravely enough.  
  
"I have to do this Jareth."   
  
He growled, the sound feral and somehow primitive, possessive. The Goblin King stepped forward   
and cradled the human's beautiful face, bringing it close to his. Thumbs caressed her   
pronounced cheek bones as his pale, other worldly eyes held her amber touched gaze.   
  
Lips, hungry, undeniable, sought and found her smooth, perfect ones. The kiss was beautiful   
and painful at the same time, the perfect physical symbol for a love that was neither a product   
of the darkness, or the light, but some wonderful mixture of the two. It deepened, became more   
intimate at a moment's notice as the anguished mood shifted abruptly. Shifted to candle light   
and bubble baths and dew ridden grass that would leave stains on hastily discarded garments.   
  
The Goblin King pulled back enough for breath and to whisper his enunciated reply. "No. You.   
Don't."   
  
Anger flared between the two lovers. Sarah twisted out of Jareth's grasp and stood, panting   
slightly, several feet out of reach, face flushed with desire and a heady mix of quiet, debated   
fury. The scarred hand was clutched tightly to her heaving breast as she watched her King   
warily.   
  
Jareth studied her for a heart beat and, frustrated by her continued refusal, strode forward   
and captured the errant hand. Jaw set, the Goblin King held the offending palm up.  
  
"I can erase this Sarah, both the physical and emotional reminders. I can make your forget   
Melanie and Devon as they have forgotten you. I can rid you of this pain... Just let me!"   
  
Sarah wrenched herself away this time, eyes blazing, deadly.   
  
"Don't you dare Jareth."   
  
The irate Goblin King's second growl held a touch more anger as he glided forward, matching   
Sarah's every retreating step with an advancing one as they traveled the length of his, their,   
bedroom, in the course of the argument. "Why?" he demanded. "Why do you insist on clinging to   
the past?"   
  
Sarah, pushed to her breaking point, took a stand, fists on hips, as she glared at her almost   
husband. Husband after she set this one thing right, after she mended what her sacrifice had   
torn, if only in her own mind. Her quiet answer could have frozen hell.  
  
"Because if I love you Jareth I will love with all that I am, and all who I have become. And   
in my past I loved Devon and I called the human girl named Melanie daughter. And perhaps they   
don't remember me; I don't doubt your magic. But I do remember.  
  
"I remember birthday parties and anniversaries and the day Devon asked me to be his wife. And   
you will not take that from me. You will not treat me that carelessly, with such   
thoughtlessness. They are my past Jareth, don't fear them, but I have to make peace with them   
to move on with the future, our future." She sighed once and went to the complex man she swore   
to love. A man who could be such a child sometimes. Who could seem so lonely and afraid at the   
oddest times.   
  
Sarah embraced a startled Goblin King, held his stiff, though not defiant body, to hers.   
Allowed herself, and him, to bask in the glow of newly declared love. She reached on her tip   
toes to brush her full lips across his creased brow before continuing, voice infinitely softer,   
gentler.  
  
"Don't be jealous Jareth. Please, this is something I have to do. Something I will do."   
  
And she since she was more then his love, was his partner, equal, and perhaps, future Queen, he   
bowed to her wishes. Gracelessly, but bowed none the less.   
  
"Very well Sarah. Call if you need me."   
  
And then he was gone.   
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
Sarah swallowed as she regarded the empty bedroom she and Devon had once shared. The bed was,   
surprisingly enough, made, and little was changed, save the complete and utter absence of   
everything that had been hers.   
  
Halting steps led her slowly to the vanity where she lightly traced the mahogany finish with   
trembling fingers that stilled after a moment to rest on a silver frame. She picked it up and   
studied the heart shaped thing, closed amber eyes to ward off the slight pang that followed the   
image... It was a picture of Devon, Devon and a woman that Sarah didn't know, and never would.   
  
Devon was smiling that open, honest smile of his, happy as he had only been with Sarah. The   
woman in his arms was blonde with gray eyes that made her face dance, despite the slightly shyer   
smile on her delicate features.   
  
Sarah put the frame carefully down, as if it was fragile, and turned, traitorous feet leading   
her into the master bath. She stopped inside the bathroom, took a deep breath, and went to the   
double vanity. Devon's sink held familiar utilities, a shaving kit, a razor dull enough to   
always leave a five o clock shadow behind.   
  
Her own sink was made strange by the makeup and lotions and perfumes that she had never seen,   
nor worn. Shades of lipstick too dark for Sarah to ever consider, eye shadow too pale for her   
to ever pull off. Scents too floral, or fruity... and amid the space left bare between the two   
sinks, was Sarah's ring.   
  
It had collected dust in the time Sarah had been Underground, but the engagement ring, the   
promise made, and broken, still glinted dully in the florescent bathroom lighting.   
  
A weaker woman would have cried. She would have herself, fifteen years ago, ten, five, one   
even, before she had faced the Sidhe Court, before she had won her place as equal to the Goblin   
King. The last thought sobered her, grounded the woman faced with the reality of the   
destruction of all she had loved and held dear.  
  
Sarah did not cry, even if her eyes were bright with unshed tears.   
  
She was strong, not numb.   
  
She regarded the small circle of metal for a long moment, an object whose apparent existence   
had been forgotten along with Sarah herself. She wondered for a moment if Jareth had left it   
as a symbol, an irony, as some righteous statement, or grand movement, that she would never,   
could never, quite grasp or comprehend. Or perhaps his magic was not as infallible,   
impenetrable, perfect, as he, and she herself, wanted to believe.   
  
Perhaps it had simply been overlooked.   
  
Perhaps not.  
  
It didn't really matter, in the end.   
  
Sarah reached out, yearning, and cradled the ring in hands that shook more then she would have   
liked. It warmed against her skin as the diamond sparkled, clear perfection. A small, mournful   
smile graced Sarah's own lips as she raised the ring and kissed it, acknowledging its past, and   
its future denied.   
  
She slipped it on, not on her ring finger for that was for another ring, but on the middle   
finger. For remembrance, for, for nothing more than a gentle, beautiful reminder of sacrifices   
made, and loved ones both saved and freed. Of paths chosen and roads, well traveled or not,   
taken.   
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
Her heavy tread brought her out of a bedroom she no longer shared, through suspiciously silent   
halls, and into the living room. Sarah's breath caught in her throat.   
  
Devon, Melanie, and a woman whose name Sarah would never know, were sleeping together on the   
couch, the TV, oblivious, on, Nick at Nite blaring as Lucy and Ricky argued at each other in   
ribald tones of anger barely hiding affection and love. Devon's long legs were propped up on   
the coffee table, one arm cradling a little girl who had grown so much in Sarah's absence, the   
other embracing the blonde from the picture who slept, curled up against her boyfriend's side.  
  
Sarah's quiet steps took her closer.  
  
Close enough to see the simple band of gold that graced the stranger's ring finger; close   
enough to see its answering promise on Devon's own hand. Devon's unscarred hands.   
  
Sarah wiped suddenly angry tears away furiously, quickly. She wondered for a moment if Toby   
had forgotten his beloved sister with such ease and knew, knew, hated, and accepted that he   
had.   
  
She stared at the woman, the intruder, and sighed. The sleeping woman was beautiful, even   
prettier then she had seemed in the lifeless picture. She was small, petite even, with round   
features and hair that could rival sunlight. She was everything that Sarah was not and yet,   
she wasn't Sarah's replacement.   
  
The thought reassured her. She half feared that, with her absence, that some hole, some need,   
would be left unfulfilled. But somehow, staring at the woman in his arms, tenderly held, most   
certainly dearly loved, Sarah knew that Devon had found his match. Had found someone who didn't   
need to be shielded from the light.   
  
The knowledge of that hurt, but not as much as she had feared it might. Not as much as it   
should, had her decision of loving Jareth been wrong.   
  
Sarah turned and quietly turned off the TV. When she looked back Melanie was awake and staring   
at her in the almost dark room. Her almost daughter's eyes were large. This time not even   
Sarah's strength could hold back her tears.   
  
She stood, shaking, before them all, Devon and the woman still sleeping, as Melanie's silent   
regard pierced the barriers Sarah thought unbreakable. Sarah wilted under the soft fierceness   
in the toddler's open gaze.   
  
Melanie held out one small, perfect, pale hand, reaching up to the woman she shouldn't remember   
with such pain in her young, innocent eyes. Sarah's trembling fingers brushed the warmth of   
the child's palm as Melanie stared at her and said, quite clearly, "Mama."  
  
Sarah sank to her knees before the little girl with curls in her hair and pressed the tiny hand   
to a wet cheek. "No Baby," she managed to whisper hoarsely through a thick throat. But Melanie   
would not be gainsaid.  
  
"Mama," she repeated insistently.   
  
Sarah sighed and rose, leaning forward to kiss the girl on her crinkled brow. She brushed back   
a few errant strands from the heart shaped child face and didn't have the heart to deny the   
title. She bit her lip before agreeing softly.   
  
"Mama," Sarah echoed. Her amber glance darted to the sleeping woman's face as she thought   
rapidly. One hand pantomimed at her heart as Melanie watched intensely. "Mama." Sarah waited   
as the little girl nodded vigorously before pointing at the sleeping woman. "Mama," Sarah   
repeated, firmly.   
  
A toddler's somber gaze settled and studied Sarah for a heart beat before turning its serious   
attention to the woman who slept in Melanie's father's arms. The girl looked back to Sarah and   
a smile, radiant, pure, broke through the clouds of sorrow on the not quite baby's gentle face.   
  
"Mama," Melanie said softly, tasting the word as she directed it to the golden haired beauty   
who had already claimed all that Sarah had clung to so dearly. All that she had sacrificed to   
make sure that the child who sat before her would live to fulfill the promise of beauty and   
light and happiness in her youthful features.   
  
"Two mothers," Sarah whispered, "two who love you with all they are. Who will always love   
you."   
  
The wise, wise child nodded once and turned, snuggling back into her father's arms, suddenly   
sleepy. A crooked smile graced Sarah's full lips.   
  
"Love you," she called. A muffled reply and affirmation nearly stopped her heart with its   
mixture of joy and bitter, bitter pain. But the pain receded after a moment and all Sarah knew   
was contentment, a measure of peace, and that warm, warm flush of joy.   
  
She stepped back, arms hugging her body as she studied the scene before her. "Jareth," she   
called gently into the expectant, heavy air around her, "I'm ready to come home, for good."   
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
And so he brought her home, to the Underground. Home to be reunited with friends both old,   
such as a pardoned Hoggle, Ludo, and brave, foolish fox, and new, like an emerald eyed Dragon   
Queen, Prince, and talkative maid... Home to dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. For   
Darculo still lurked, waiting for a chance to destroy another almost daughter who bore the   
name of Melani and Sarah, for all that she herself had grown, was not quite ready to be called   
Goblin Queen.   
  
Home to a man who had stolen her brother, her death, and her heart. Home to a man who was as   
complex as the land he ruled. Home to a man who had learned to love, if only for her. Home to   
a man who would defy his people to keep her by his side. Home to Jareth, home to the Goblin   
King, her King. Home to a world of gray but, gray had never seemed so beautiful, so hopeful,   
so alive.  
  
And Sarah, immortal, beloved, had never been so proud, so fulfilled, by her sacrifices.   
  
******************************************************************************************  
  
"Jareth, love?" she asked as he broke their heated kiss. Her hair, sable strands of living   
silk, trailed up his arms.   
  
"Yes?" he murmured as hands roamed hungrily. Sarah pulled back and glowered.   
  
"Why does my hair always respond to you so?"   
  
He chuckled, mercenary, and smiled, feral, wolfish. "Why little Sarah, I would think that its   
obvious by now. We're made for each other, and its simply responding to that desire, that   
emotion, the need to find completeness in me."   
  
Sarah snorted delicately. "You're making that up." He leaned forward and nipped her earlobe.   
  
"I don't lie Sarah, not to you."   
  
She shivered in her arms before laughing softly. He gazed at her, dangerous gaze subdued into   
askance. "It would have made things a hell of a lot simpler if you had told me that a long   
time ago."   
  
Jareth shrugged, as if in embarrassment, before replying gallantly, roguishly, enough. "But   
Sarah," he replied as he moved to reclaim the lips that had pledged her loyalty and love to   
him, "what would be the fun of that?"  
  
Darkness, light, and intricate, complicated, beautiful gray indeed. 


End file.
